Today in History:

920 Series I Volume XXIX-I Serial 48 - Bristoe, Mine Run Part I

Page 920 OPERATIONS IN N. C., VA., W. VA., MD., AND PA. Chapter XLI.


Numbers 6.-Brigadier General Eliakim P. Scammon, U. S. Army, commanding demonstration from the Kanawha Valley.


Numbers 7.-Lieutenant Harrison G. Otis, Twelfth Ohio Infantry, of skirmish (14th) on the Blue Sulphur road, near Meadow Bluff, W. Va.


Numbers 8.-Major General Samuel Jones, C. S. Army, commanding Department of Western Virginia.


Numbers 9.-Brigadier General John Echols, C. S. Army, commanding brigade.


Numbers 10.-Colonel William L. Jackson, Nineteenth Virginia Cavalry.


Numbers 11.-Colonel William Wiley Arnett, Twentieth Virginia Cavalry.


Numbers 12.-Captain James Wade, Assistant Commissary of Subsistence, C. S. Army, of stores lost, &c.


Numbers 13.-Major General Jubal A. Early, C. S. Army, commanding detachment from Army of Northern Virginia.


Numbers 14.-Major General Fitzhugh Lee, C. S. Army, commanding Cavalry Division, Army of Northern Virginia.


Numbers 1. Report of Brigadier General Benjamin F. Kelley, U. S. Army, commanding Department of West Virginia.


HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA,
Cumberland, Md., February 18, 1864.

GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations in this department during the month of December, 1863, which resulted in the cutting of the enemy's communications, and the destruction of his depots at Salem, on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad:

In pursuance of the intimated wishes of the General-in-Chief, on the 5th of December, I ordered Brigadier-General Averell, commanding First Separate Brigade, to move with all his available force, via Petersburg, Franklin, and Monterey, to the line of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, at Bonsack's Station, in Botetourt County, or Salem, in Roanoke County, and there destroy the railroad to as great an extent and as thoroughly as practicable. To assist in this movement, Colonel Thoburn, First [West] Virginia Infantry, commanding brigade,w as ordered to report to General Averell with two regiments of infantry and a section of artillery, to be left at some selected point on the route, for the purpose of guarding the forage trains and supporting the return of the expedition. The object of the expedition accomplished, General Averell was ordered to return to any station on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between New Creek and Harper's Ferry that might be found most convenient.

To withdraw the enemy's attention from the movements of the main column, and to prevent his penetrating its real design, it was thought advisable to make double feints on either flank, menacing Staunton and New River Bridge, respectively.

On the 1st of December, Brigadier-General Scammon, commanding Third Division, was ordered to advance from Kanawha, via Lewisburg and Union, threatening the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad at New River.

On the 8th of December, Brigadier-General Sullivan, commanding First Division, received orders to send all his cavalry force, with two regiments of infantry and a battery, up the Valley of the Shenandoah, to occupy Harrisonburg, and from thence to threaten Staunton with the cavalry, remaining until the 22nd of the month.


Page 920 OPERATIONS IN N. C., VA., W. VA., MD., AND PA. Chapter XLI.