U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statementon the following page: ----------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER XXIII. MILITARY OPERATIONS Three strategic factors determined that trans-mon- tane Virginia should be the theatre of contending armies very early in the struggle. In the first place, the Vir- ginia frontier was the Ohio river and the Mason and Dixon line, and Virginia wished to preserve her terri- tory from invasion. Secondly the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was the most southern line across the moun- tains by which Washington was connected with the rich and populous states of the middle west, by which the capital received troops and supplies and by which armies could easily be transferred from the eastern field of op- erations to the theatre of the Mississippi valley. It was an imperative necessity for the North to hold the rail- road. With the road in their possession they could hold Washington and keep up communication between the eastern and western forces; without it they would have had to depend on roundabout routes likely to be over- worked in hauling foodstuffs to the people of the sea- board cities. The Confederates wished, of course, to pre- vent its falling into the hands of the North. The third factor was the anti-secession sentiment in northwestern Virginia which the officials at Washington knew through their agents. If the north acted quickly, the Union men in northwestern Virginia could be encouraged. The number of Union sympathizers could be increased if the faint-hearted could be shown that it was safe for them to take their stand by the old flag. These factors were of course not overlooked by the government of Virginia. On April 30th, 1861, General Lee ordered Major Boykin of Weston to issue a call for volunteers, proceed to Grafton and assume command of the forces raised. Two companies joined his command, one from Fairmont and one made up of the remnant of the Virginia militia in Lewis County which responded to the call of the state, armed only with flint-lock mus- kets, in bad order, and without ammunition. The result of the call must have been disappointing. to the Con- federate leaders. They doubtless expected that the peo- ple of the northwest would be able to hold the frontier until help should come, and, in accordance with their usual policy in dealing with the west, the officials con- centrated most of their troops for the defense of the east- ern part of the state. On May 16, Colonel Porterfield, who had assumed command at Grafton, reported that there was much di- versity of feeling and that his troops lacked arms. The greatest efforts were made to secure volunteers. On May 30, Governor Letcher issued a flamboyant proclamation calling upon the people to rally to arms. "The heart that will not beat in unison with Virginia is a traitor's heart; the arm that will not strike for home in her cause is palsied with a coward fear." The soil of Virginia had been invaded! Federal troops under McClellan crossed the Ohio river at Wheeling and Parkersburg, and with an energy which McClellan scarcely showed in any later campaign, penetrated at once to the heart of the northwest at Graf- ton, stampeded the sleeping Confederates at Philippi, and practically cleared the Monongahela valley almost without loss of life. The Confederates raised some forces from the Valley of Virginia which under the command of General Garnett attempted to drive off McClellan; but after the sharp skirmishes at Rich mountain and Laurel hill he sought safety in flight, only to be over- taken and killed at Corrick's ford on the Cheat river. Up to the last week in June McClellan's troops had confined their attention to following up the Confederate forces and preparing to meet them when they turned with reinforcements. No troops had been sent to aid the Union men at Weston. It was important that troops should be sent quickly. In 1860 the General Assembly of Virginia had appropriated $125,000 for the construc- tion of the lunatic asylum, and $30,000 of this amount had been deposited in the Exchange bank at Weston. It was to be expected that the Secession government of Virginia would recall the funds. The Union men feared they would be delivered to Richmond by the bank offi- cials if such a call were made. The loyalty of the bank to the Restored government of Virginia and to the United States was seriously questioned by Weston people. Union citizens of Weston determined, if possible, to secure the funds for the use of the newly organized government at Wheeling. On June 26 (and very late that night according to the story of Captain Wilkinson), a meeting was held in the back room of A. C. Hale's shoe shop, to take concerted action with a view to hav- ing troops brought to Weston. Those in attendance were: Captain J. C. Wilkinson, George C. Danser, Wil- Ham J. Daugherty, J. G. Vandervort, A. C. Hale, E. M. Tunstill, Robert Irvine, J. F. Osborn and Major Charles E. Anderson, and except for them the meeting was se- cret. It was decided that Captain Wilkinson should go at once to Wheeling and inform Governor Pierpont of the matter. He set out at once to walk to Clarksburg, caught an early train, and reached Wheeling late in the afternoon of the next day. He secured an audience with the new governor immediately, and within two hours thereafter orders had been issued for the Seventh Ohio regiment to proceed from Camp Dennison, Ohio, to Wes- ton. P. M. Hale, then a member of the Legislature, also had an important part in having the troops sent to Wes- ton. He had gone to Grafton at about the same time that Captain Wilkinson had started from Weston and had an audience with General McClellan in which he re- quested that the Seventh Ohio be sent to Weston be- cause its commander, Colonel E. B. Tyler, having pre- viously been a fur buyer, "knew every hog-path in Lewis County." The Seventh Ohio left Camp Dennison and came by way of Wheeling and Grafton to Clarksburg where the regiment arrived at 4 p. m. on June 28. The march to Weston was taken up on the evening of the next day. The troops reached Jane Lew about midnight, where they received a royal welcome from the inhabitants. At 5 a. m. Weston was in sight. The approaches were seized, and the regiment entered the town by Main street with a fife and drum corps playing. James Jackson and six other secessionists were im- mediately arrested and sent to Grafton. Other promi- nent men of the town, who were also arrested, were re- leased after an examination. R. J. McCandlish, the cash- ier of the Exchange bank branch was arrested and forced to hand over $28,000 of its funds. Governor Pier- pont, upon being notified of the action, sent John List to Weston to take possession of the money "on behalf of its rightful owners, the true and lawful government of Virginia." The money was taken to Wheeling and deposited in banks there to the credit of the state. It was used in paying the salaries of officers, and other expenses inci- dent to setting the Restored government in operation. A much greater amount was, however, appropriated by the Legislature of the Restored government and used later in the construction of the institution. Contrary to the general belief among the people of the town the Weston branch of the Exchange bank was loyal to the United States, and the confiscation of its funds was unwar- ranted. Cashier McCandlish immediately went to Wheeling, saw Governor Pierpont and, aided by the in- tercession of Major Anderson, secured credit for the money from the Wheeling banks in which it had been deposited. The people of Weston received the troops with emotions ranging all the way from fear and hatred to unbounded joy. Nothing was too great for the regiment to ask. Mrs. Osborn prepared breakfast for sixty-four hungry soldiers on the morning of their arrival and Mrs. Dinsmore satisfied the hunger of dozens of others. Camp Tyler, so-called from the name of the commanding offi- cer of the regiment, was established on the west side of the river on what is now a part of the hospital lawn. A large flag pole was brought from the country, from which the Stars and Stripes was soon proudly waving to the breeze. The office of the Weston Herald, which had been hastily vacated by its editor and proprietor, F. J. Alfred, was seized by the young officers of the regiment, and within a few days "The Ohio Seventh" made its ap- pearance. Its motto was, "We come to protect, not to invade." In his salutatory the editor says : "The Ohio Seventh will be published as often as circumstances will permit, and of such material as may be found in se- cession offices where we may chance to stop long enough to raise our flag and issue a paper. Confederate States' bonds and other 'secesh' paper not received for either subscriptions or advertising." Though the troops had been brought to Weston pri- marily for the purpose of securing the Virginia funds in the Exchange bank, there was no disposition among the higher command of the Union forces to order their with- drawal. Weston was an important strategic center, the possession of which by the Union forces gave them a certain security and a point of vantage for further move- ments into the Confederate territory of the northwest. It was an important outpost for the protection of the Bal- timore and Ohio railroad because of its location on the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike by which Confeder- ate raiding parties aiming at the Northwestern railroad west of Clarksburg were likely to approach. Most im- portant of all, it was the junction of the Weston and Gauley Bridge turnpike with the state road, and was the gate to the northern approach to the Kanawha valley, and the center from which the secession territory to the south and west could be most easily commanded. Other troop movements soon showed that the Union leaders did not intend easily to relinquish the advantage gained. On July 4, a company was dispatched to Walkers- ville to break up a Confederate recruiting station and bring in prisoners. At about the same time, reinforce- ments arrived from Clarksburg, among which was a de- tachment of the gallant First Virginia cavalry, which was billeted in the Bland hotel, the Bailey house and other public and private buildings. Colonel Stanley Matth- ews, afterwards an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, led his regiment across the Ohio river and swept up the Little Kanawha to Glenville and then to Weston. It was not long until a detachment of the quartermaster's department was stationed in the town, which became a sort of sub-station for the main office at Clarksburg. A two-story frame building was erected out the Parkersburg pike in which goods were stored un- til required to be issued to the men. George Ross, who later became prominent in the affairs of the county, was one of the clerks of the quartermaster's department who came to Weston at this time. Upon the department de- volved part of the responsibility of maintaining com- munication between the advanced posts and the main body, and the units in Weston were placed in connection with Clarksburg first by courier, and later by the erec- tion of the first telegraph line in Lewis County, The federal occupation of Weston was not a hard- ship to the people, and after the novelty of the situa- tion wore off, they would hardly have known they were living in a military post. The proclamation of General McCtrllan had stated that the Union troops were "ene- mies to none but armed rebels and those voluntarily giv- ing them aid," and troops which came to Weston usually refrained from molesting the persons and property of those who were known to be in sympathy with the South- ern states. The troops were raw levies, however, the officers were as new as the troops, and there was unfor- tunately some pilfering at first. Within a few days the offenders were stopped by the heroic measures taken by the commanding officers of the Union forces. Captain Shuman, of the First Virginia cavalry punished several of his men by fastening nose bags over their heads and then tying them to the pillars of the Bland hotel, both as an example to other evildoers and to show the residents that thieves were to be punished. Drunkenness was punished by bucking and gagging a man in public. Some of the soldiers stationed in Weston performed distinct public services, like the publishers of the Ohio Seventh. Practically all the soldiers were young men, who behaved themselves as gentlemen and gave little cause for complaint. They mingled freely with the fam- ilies of the Union sympathizers, and after the war sev- eral of them located permanently in Weston. The citizens of the town were subjected to some of the restrictions imposed upon the residents of every towti occupied as a military post. Strong guards were placed on all the principal approaches to the town, including the two bridges across Stone Coal, the narrows above Shadybrook, the Polk creek bridge, and the narrows above the electric light plant. At the Bendale bridge there was a picket, consisting of from two squads to a company, depending upon the danger from the Confed- erates. All through the months of July and August. 1861, the Bendale bridge was the southernmost post in the Union lines; beyond it was Confederate territory. One of the commanders of the picket at Bendale bridge at a later date was William McKinley, afterwards Pres- ident. By the end of July the Confederates had been driven from the Monongahela valley, and all that region saved for the Union. The war department wished similarly to gain possession of the Kanawha valley. A double movement was planned. General J. D. Cox crossed the Ohio river near Point Pleasant and advanced up the val- ley against Generals Wise and Floyd, who had been placed in command by the Confederate government. A flanking movement was also planned over the Weston and Gauley Bridge turnpike from the north. In the latter part of August, 1861, Colonel Tyler left Weston with the Seventh Ohio and took up his line of March to Gauley Bridge, one hundred eleven miles dis- tant. The campaign was without incident until after the troops had passed the bounds of the county into Braxton. A man by the name of Clinebell had swept through Gil- mer and Braxton counties, like another Paul Revere, spreading the warning that the Yankees were coming. Thef Northern sympathizers in the county made their way out to the Ohio Seventh by devious paths. Every blacksnake rifle in the county was pressed into service and some of the natives even armed themselves with butcher-knives. Trouble was experienced at Powell's mountain in Nicholas county, where bushwhackers were put to flight and one of them killed. Beyond the moun- tain at Cross Lanes the Union troops met General Floyd with a large body of Confederates, and fought a drawn battle. Tyler retreated to Summersville. General Rose- crans having come up with reinforcements, the Confed- erates withdrew to Carnifax Ferry on the Gauley. There they were severely defeated. In November the final battle of the campaign was fought at Gauley Bridge, and the Kanawha valley was cleared of Confederates. Immediately upon the commencement of the expe- dition under Rosecrans it became necessary to establish a military courier line to keep up communications. The couriers were subjected to dangers from the bush- whackers who infested the road practically all the way from Weston to Gauley Bridge. James Flesher, of Polk creek, was killed by them while on the perilous service. The stretch of the turnpike along Carrion run is said to have been one of the most dangerous places on the whole route. Bushwhackers in Lewis County wore far too nu- merous. As a class they were worthless, taking up arms not so much because of their love for a cause as to gratify their revenge on their neighbors and to secure plunder. They would not enlist in the regular forces, but con- tented themselves with remaining at home and creating a reign of terror in their communities. Captain Leib, of the quartermaster department, in his book, "The Chances for Making a Million," says: "The bushwhackers are composed of a class of men who are noted for their ig- norance, indolence, duplicity and dishonesty; whose vices and passions peculiarly fit them for the warfare in which they are engaged, and upon which the civilized world looks with horror. Imagine a stolid, vicious-look- ing countenance, an ungainly figure and an awkward, if not ungraceful, spinal curve in the dorsal region, ac- quired by laziness and indifference to maintaining an erect posture; a garb of the coarsest texture of home-spun kubeb, or 'linsey woolsey' tattered and torn, and so cov- ered with dirt as not to enable one to guess its original color; a dilapidated, rimless hat, or cap of some wild animal's skin covering his head, the hair on which has not been combed for months; his feet covered with moc- casins, and a rifle by his side, a powder-horn and shot- pouch slung around his neck and you have the beau ideal of the West Virginia bushwhackers. "Thus equipped he sallies forth with the stealth of a panther, and lies in wait for the straggling soldier, courier, or loyal citizen, to whom the only warning given of his presence is the sharp click of his deadly rifle. He kills for the sake of killing and plunders for the sake of gain. Parties of these ferocious beasts, under cover of darkness, frequently steal into a neighborhood, burn the residences of loyal citizens, rob stores, tanyards and farm- houses of everything they can put to use, especially arms, ammunition, leather, clothing, bedding and salt." In Lewis County, Ben Raymond and ferry Hays are said to have been notorious as leaders of partisan bands on the Southern side, and there were several others who infested the county. Two Connelly brothers living in the county, who took opposite sides in the war, each raised a band of partisans. At different times their ad- herents had fierce encounters, until finally the bands met near Sutton. The conflict soon became hand to hand. The two brothers finally confronted each other, and after a sharp struggle the leader of the Union band killed his brother. One night a band of guerillas took a young man named Mulvey from his bed and shot him in cold blood for no other reason than that he was an avowed Union man. Not all the bushwhackers were Southern, however. One of the most notorious of all was William G. Pier- son, who espoused the cause of the Union very early in the war, though two of his sons honorably took sides with the South by joining its armies. Pierson lived out the Gauley Bridge turnpike about two miles south of Jacksonville. At the very beginning of the war in west- ern Virginia he gathered a few kindred spirits about him in an organization called Pierson's Rangers. From head- quarters at Hogsett's tavern at Jacksonville they caused a reign of terror throughout Collins Settlement. Pierson was feared and hated by men of both parties. Porter M. Arnold, justice of the peace and prominent citizen of the county, asked the regular forces of the Confederates to break up his band. "If you will kill Bill Pierson," he once is reported to have said to Captain Imboden, "I'll give you two hundred acres of land." "If I see Pierson," was the reply, "I'll kill him, and you don't need to give me any land for it." Late in October, 1861, Pierson entered Jacksonville in the night and compelled Arnold, William Brake, Wil- liam Francis and a man named Blair to get out of their beds and accompany him. When the party had gone about a mile up the river with the captives a short dis- tance in front of the party the rangers opened fire with- out warning. At the first volley Francis fell feigning death, and Arnold, Brake and Blair were killed or mor- tally wounded. The rangers proceeded on their way without further ado, and Francis ran to Weston to se- cure medical attention and aid. The act so incensed the people of the community, both those of Union and those of Confederate sympathies, and so increased the public detestation which his previous acts had evoked that Pierson was compelled to leave the community and go into hiding. Later in the course of the war he scouted for the Federals from his home in Jane Lew. In the autumn of 1864 he was shot by an unknown hand while standing on the porch of his home. In order to put a stop to the outrages committed by both Confederate and Union bushwhackers and partisan leaders, as well as to render aid to the regular forces in case of invasion by armed troops, Governor Pierpont early; in his administration directed the formation of home guards all over the state. J. C. Wilkinson, of Weston, was commissioned to raise a company in Lewis County. He succeeded in securing the enlistment of about forty men, and with them he did excellent work in restoring order, and scouting in the face of the Con- federate raiders, though the force was too weak to op- pose a large force. The Union forces were not long left in peaceful pos- session of Western Virginia. For the Confederates to have sat supinely by and allowed the Federals free hand west of the Alleghanies would have been to disregard a magnificent strategic opportunity. The conquest of the territory would have been impracticable for the Confed- erates at any time after the defeat of Garnett and Lee, because the movements of the Federals around Washing- ton and in the Mississippi valley kept the Confederates busy, and no large forces could be spared. With very small bodies of men, however, it was possible to do im- mense damage to the Union forces and to gain advan- tages greatly out of proportion to the number of troops employed. They could sometimes reach the main line of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad and, by burning bridges and tearing up tracks, interrupt communications and de- lay the arrival of reinforcements and supplies for the Fed- erals. In order to guard against the attack of a thousand men or less the Federals were compelled to keep several thousand on duty guarding the road and scouting in various parts of northwestern Virgjnia. Another advan- tage was that the raiders also secured important addi- tions to their diminishing supplies when horses and cat- tle were driven over the mountains to be used as mounts for the cavalry in the one case or food for the people in the other. Another object of their earlier raids was to secure recruits. By some strange fatuity the officials at Rich- mond seemed to think that once the way was open for men to get through the Federal lines, thousands of vol- unteers would flock to their standards from northwest- ern Virginia. Most of the raids were directed toward the stretch of railroad between Piedmont and Harper's Ferry; bu: several parties crossed the Alleghanies, and at least three reached Weston. The first raider to reach Weston was General A. G. Jenkins, who, on August 12, 1862, left Lewisburg in Greenbrier County with 550 men, leisurely proceeded up the Greenbrier river, crossed Valley moun- tain intending to attack Beverly but, finding the place strongly garrisoned, passed to the left of the town, and on the evening of August 30th entered Buckhannon after a short skirmish with the Federal garrison and home guards. The company garrisoning Weston fell back on Clarksburg the same day, taking with them all the stores that could be moved, and destroying others. Jenkins' presence west of the mountains was now known to the Federals, and troops were being concentrated to inter- cept him. It was imperative that he move rapidly. Early on the morning following the Buckhannon skirm- ish Jenkins entered Weston firing promiscuously to spread terror among the inhabitants. He was unop- posed. A force of home guards which Judge Robert Irvine had collected to prevent disorder after the retreat of the Federal troops to Clarksburg, and which was sta- tioned on the west side of the river, dispersed upon the entry of the Confederate troops into the town. Promptly the Confederates proceeded to the execu- tion of the purpose for which they came. All the citi- zens who were on the streets were lined up as prisoners of war and compelled to take the parole not to fight against the Confederate States. Small parties were de- tached in different directions to clear the town of Union soldiers, if any remained. On the west side of the river a single Federal was found who refused to obey the com- mand to halt and was shot in the leg. Small parties proceeded to the nearby country districts to round up horses. Others broke into the principal stores of the town, including that of A. A. Lewis, a Confederate sym- pathizer, and forced the merchants to accept payment for goods in Confederate money. They did not secure any funds from the Exchange bank because Cashier Mc- Candlish had taken all the money from the vaults and left with the Federal troops the preceding day. After destroying such stores as could be found Jenkins left late in the evening, picking up small parties of his men who had been in the country districts at different points on the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike west of the town. After proceeding through enemy territory for more than 500 miles, destroying thousands of dollars worth of stores, securing much property and doing great damage, the command got safely back. The lessons of the raid were not lost to the Confed- erates, and they planned the next spring a more exten- sive raid with the double object of putting the Baltimore and Ohio railroad out of commission and gaining re- cruits and supplies. The railroad, according to the declaration of Governor Letcher, had been "a nuisance to the state of Virginia ever since its construction," and the next raid was an ambitious attempt to abate the nuisance. A double invasion was planned. General Jones was to destroy the bridges and viaducts on the difficult crossing of the Alleghanies, thence go to Mor- gantown and Fairmont, at which place he was to destroy the bridge across the Monongahela and from there take up his march to Clarksburg. General John D. Imboden was to come from the Shenandoah Valley via Beverly and Philippi to the rendezvous at Clarksburg. The Federal forces in northwestern Virginia, con- sisting of a brigade, were under the command of Briga- dier General B. S. Roberts, with headquarters at Clarks- burg. At the time of the coming of the Confederates his forces were distributed in several places, one regiment being at Beverly. When Imboden attacked that post, Roberts set out for its relief and had gone as far as Buckhannon when he learned that the garrison at Bev- erly had been forced to retreat toward Philippi. He fran- tically called upon Washington for reinforcements and ordered all his troops on the Weston and Gauley Bridge turnpike to concentrate at Clarksburg. Learning that Jones' cavalry was approaching Grafton, that Imboden was pursuing the Beverly garrison toward Philippi, and that in the general panic the stores at Weston had been destroyed contrary to his orders, he began to race with the two bodies of Confederates for the possession of Clarksburg. By forced marches Roberts arrived at Clarksburg first and put his troops in position to defend the town. His cavalry under Captain Bowen fell upon a part of Jones' force below Clarksburg and drove them in a panic to the main body which had moved toward Buck- hannon to join Imboden. The Confederates moved around Clarksburg and concentrated at Weston where the advance guard arrived about April 28th. Cavalry scouts sent out by Jones reported no imme- diate danger of an attack from the Federals at Clarks- burg who now outnumbered the combined Confederate commands, and it was determined to continue the raid. Jones with his more mobile force was to destroy the Northwestern railroad between Salem and Parkersburg, and Imboden was to proceed south over the Weston and Gauley Bridge turnpike to raid the valley of the Great Kanawha. Jones moved out first toward West Union, but was prevented from entering that town by the pres- ,ice of Federals in forc^-, and he proceeded to c*(stroy bridges east and west of the town, and to set fire to one of the tunnels. He went down the little Kanawha val- ley as far as the oil wells at Burning Springs in Wirt County where he set fire to 150,000 barrels of oil and practically ruined the oil industry of the place until the close of the war. He then returned to Glenville and pro- ceeded to Summersville over the Weston and Charleston turnpike. Imboden remained at Weston a few days after the departure of Jones in order to threaten the flank and rear of the Federals if they attempted to fall upon Jones. He improved his time in trying to secure recruits and in col- lecting provisions. Detachments were sent out into the Freeman's creek and Hacker's creek sections to scout, to invite enlistments and to 'trade' horses with the farm- ers, but they were disappointed. Most of the people were Union in sentiment, and most of the horses had been driven to the woods. In Weston he took measures to prevent looting and offenses against those of Union sympathies who had not escaped with the Federal gar- rison. Guards were stationed at all the stores. No sol- diers were allowed to take any goods without paying for them; but as the payments were made in depreciated Confederate currency, the losses of the merchants were considerable. Attempts of the soldiers to secure a United States flag which had been hidden in the home of Post- master George V. Strickler were frustrated by the prompt action of General Imboden in stationing sentries around the house. The Confederate soldiers under Im- boden were under strict discipline and generally de- ported themselves as gentlemen. They gave the people to understand that they were friends returned to a friendly district, and they invited the co-operation of the- civilian population. The residents of Weston whose sympathies were with the South received Imboden's men with open arms. Many of them were Lewis County boys; Imboden himself was a son of a resident of Skin creek. The women of the town made a Confederate flag and pre- sented it to the soldiers. Seeing the condition of the clothing of some of the men, they busied themselves with their needles and made shirts and other wearing apparel for them. Cautious business men whose sympathies with the Confederate cause had been carefully disguised dur- ing the Union occupation openly tendered them aid in various ways. Meanwhile Roberts remained in Clarksburg and al- lowed Jones time to cut the railroad and Imboden time to recuperate, only sending one regiment against the former, and reconnoitering parties against the latter. On May 5th, however, he sent a strong party under Cap- tain Bowen to reconnoiter in force in the vicinity of Jane Lew. They almost succeeded in surrounding and capturing Captain John Sprigg who held Jane Lew and inflicted considerable losses upon him. He fled to Wes- ton. Imboden, thinking the scouting party to be the ad- vance guard of Roberts' command hastily formed part of his men for a delaying action below Weston while the wagon trains were prepared for a hasty retreat south- ward. The Federal party did not pursue Sprigg, and the Confederates, still under the impression that it was the advance guard of Roberts' army, retreated in all haste, taking routes to the left of the Weston and Gauley Bridge turnpike which had been badly cut up by the wagon trains of the Federals retreating from Bulltown and points south. They were able to travel only a few miles a day. One of their encampments was at Walkersville. whence they went over the Buckhannon and Little Kanawha turnpike to the Braxton-Lewis line. Shortly after the Confederates left, Roberts entered Weston. He did not attempt to pursue Imboden, merely advising the War Department that troops should be sent to Staunton to cut off the retreat of the column. He him- self confined his attention to the Confederates in Weston He made wholesale arrests of the leading citizens of the town. Sixty-three women and children, the wives and children and mothers and sisters of soldiers in the South- ern army were sent through the lines, where they would help to consume the rapidly diminishing food supply of the Confederate states. About an equal number of prom- inent citizens was sent to Camp Chase to be interned until the close of the war. The inefficient Roberts was soon relieved by General Averill, an able commander who reorganized the forces under him as cavalry and not only repulsed many of the Confederate raids, but even led an important raid against the railroad in south- western Virginia. Weston was not again visited by Confederate troops until the fall of 1864 when a party of cavalry under Colonel V. A. Witcher, who had been with General Jones on his western raid, suddenly appeared from the direc- tion of Bulltown. There was no force sufficient to op- pose him, and he took possession. The stores were rifled and some good horses were taken from the farms in ex- change for sorry mounts, but the greatest damage done was to rob the Exchange bank of all its funds, amounting to $5,287.85. A receipt for this amount, signed by Brig- adier-General John Echols, is still in possession of the bank. Jane Lew was occupied by a small party of cav- alry, but the threatened pursuit) of Averill's cavalry caused Witcher to curtail his visit. After appropriat- ing the blankets in use by the patients in the newly opened hospital for the insane, he retreated with all speed to the Shenandoah valley. The damage done by raiders in western Virginia is not to be compared to that done by the partisan bands, as witness the condition of Braxton and Fayette counties at the end of the war, with their county seats practically destroyed and many of the residences abandoned. The Braxton County records were early in the war removed for safe keeping to Weston. Lewis County was fortu- nate in having comparatively few partisan bands and an active and efficient company of home guards. In general there was little confusion in the county compared with most of the surrounding counties. Peo- ple of opposite views got along with each other by re- fraining from the discussion of politics. Farmers went about their duties as usual. Business was not wholly de- stroyed. Work on the hospital for the insane was con- tinued throughout most of the war, and the institution was actually opened for patients in 1864. There was a great undercurrent of feeling all during the war. When F. J. Alfred returned to Weston in 1862 to resume his journalistic operations under the title of "The Stars and Stripes," the Unionists remembered his former advocacy of "Southern Rights and Southern Independence," and he was soon forced to suspend pub- lication for want of patronage. The public business of the county suffered as a re- sult of the military operations and the political confusion of the period. There was considerable difficulty in se- curing a quorum of the justices in the early days of the war; and only the public business of immediate import- ance was given attention. Few bridge orders, road or- ders and notations as to the granting of poor claims are found in the record books of the period. One of the officials of the county refused to recognize the existence of the new state of West Virginia and paid to the Vir- ginia government at Richmond the sum of $3,575.30, be- ing the judgments of commissioners of delinquent taxes and forfeited lands. The Restored government infused new strength into the county court, and it seemed for a time to regain all its old time vigor as an administrative body. It could not, however, repair the roads as fast as the troops cut them to pieces. The business of being a sheriff in the early days of the war was not the safest or most pleas- ant occupation in the world. There were the usual taxes to collect and the accounts to be kept; and in addition the duties of the sheriff as a peace officer were vastly aug- mented. At one time early in the war it was impossible to find a man so foolhardy as to accept the office. The presence of Union troops made the position much safer. The most important duties of the county officers after the formation of West Virginia were in connection with furnishing soldiers for the Union army and giving aid to the dependent families of those who had volun- teered. So far as the greatly diminished revenues of the county would admit, assistance was given in all deserv- ing cases. When President Lincoln issued his call for 500,000 men in 1864, the board of supervisors of the county, following the custom in other states, offered a bounty of $300 to every soldier who enlisted in the ser- vice. In order that those who had volunteered at an earlier date should not be discriminated against on ac- count of their patriotism it was ordered at the same time that all who had volunteered previously in the companies of Michael Egan and Jasper Peterson should be paid $40, but that the amounts already paid for the relief of the families of the soldiers should be deducted from the bonus. The apportionment of the county was fifty- three men, and all were raised within a surprisingly short time. Early in 1865, upon the call for 300,000 volunteers by the President, the board offered a bounty of $400 each to secure twenty-one men. There being then no funds in the county treasury, and no provision having been made in the levy for the year, it was found expedi- ent to issue notes on the county for $8,400, the amount required to pay the bounties. -----------------------------------------------------------