Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/294

 -86 Southern Mislorical Society Papers.

the volunteer companies as a chaplain. Dr. Price kept a faith- ful diary, beginning on the i8th day of May, 1861, until about the 2Oth of June, recording every day each day's events. Of the two soldiers referred to who kept diaries of the "On to Grafton" campaign, one was a Mr. Osborne Wilsero, and the other a Mr. Charles Lewis Campbell. Both of these gentle- men were members of Captain Hull's company, as both were born and reared in Highland county, Va. These gentlemen were still living at the last account, one a citizen of his native county, in Virginia, and the other a citizen of the State of Cali- fornia. The three diaries referred to have been compiled and published in booklet form by Dr. Price, for which act alone the name of Dr. Price should be held in grateful remembrance by Virginia people.

CIRCUMSTANCES OF DISASTER.

The writer further desires to say that he has in his possession letters that were written at the time of this Philippi disaster by intelligent Southern men, detailing all the attendant circum- stances, and with all this record of facts, in connection with his individual knowledge, which peculiar environments allowed him to obtain at the time, he feels amply able to tell the story from a Southern standpoint.

Prior to the passage of the ordinance of secession by the con- vention, the Legislature of Virginia passed an act providing for the raising of 20,000 troops for the protection of the State against armed invasion, and after the adjournment of the con- vention Governor Letcher began ordering the volunteer com- panies to various points on the border of the State. In North- western Virginia the order was for all volunteer companies to rendezvous at Grafton, and hence the cry arose among the young soldiers, "On to Grafton." The town of Grafton, then, as now, was in Taylor county, Va., (now West Virginia), on the Bal- timore and Ohio Railroad, and at the junction of what was then the Parkersburg branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

The town of Grafton in 1861 was a new railroad town, and owed its existence entirely to the building of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the main line of which, a distance of 379 miles, between the cities of Baltimore and Wheeling, had been com-