Today in History:

439 Series I Volume XII-I Serial 15 - Second Manassas Part I

Page 439 Chapter XXIV. EXPEDITION TO ADDISON, W. VA.

deliberate fire of his men is mainly due the successful repulse of this formidable attack. Our loss was 1 private killed and 6 missing.

I am, captain, your obedient servant,

W. H. F. LEE,

Lieutenant-Colonel Ninth Virginia Cavalry.

Captain G. F. HARRISON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

APRIL 17021, 1862. - Expedition from Summerville (Nicholas Court-House) to Addison, W. Va.

Report of Major Elbenezer B. Andrews, Thirty-sixth Ohio Infantry.

SUMMERVILLE, VA., April 22, 1862.

SIR: In obedience to your instructions I left this post for Addison, Webster County, on the morning of April 17, for the purpose of destroying any parties of armed rebels that might be found and of co-operating with certain other Federal troops who were ordered to concentrate at Addison. My command was composed of parts of Company E, Captain Hollister, and Second Lieutenant Patton, with 45 enlisted men; Company G, Captain Palmer, First Lieutenant Stanley, and Second Lieutenant Clarke, with 50 enlisted men; Company I, Captain Nye, and First Lieutenant Clarke, with 51 enlisted men; and Company K, Captain Walden, and First Lieutenant Stearns, with 50 enlisted men, in all, 200 enlisted men.

We started at 7.30 o'clock and reached Andrew Hickman's before noon. In the afternoon we marched to within a mile of Gardner's store and halted for the night, making for the day a march of 22 miles. We captured that evening Jonathan Griffin, a bushwhacker, who confesses to having been in the skirmish at Gardner's store last January.

The next day (Friday) we reached Addison at 2 o'clock p. m. That evening we captured a man named Lynch, who, if not a bushwhacker, has been in sympathy and communion with them, and had just returned from their camp at Holly Creek, a branch of Elk, which empties into the latter stream from the east below Addison. He was well armed when captured.

The next morning (Saturday) Captains Morgan and Murrin, of the Tenth Virginia Volunteers, reached Addison from Upshur County. They had found no armed rebels on their route. About noon Lieutenant Lawson, of the First Virginia Cavalry, from Sutton, and Captain Darnall and Lieutenant Connoly, of the Tenth Virginia Volunteers, with 80 men, from Bulltown, reached Addison. They reported that the cavalry had a skirmish on Thursday with a band of bushwhackers, estimated to be 50 or 60 strong, on Holly Creek, and killed 2 of them. On Friday, re-enforced by Captain Darnall, they met the rebels again and entirely routed them, killing 7. On Saturday morning they killed another of the band. They also reported the capture of a considerable number of horses which had been stolen from Union men, and also some goods recently stolen from a store in Bulltown.

On Sunday morning I started on my return, having sent all the other forces, numbering in all 220 men, to scour thoroughly the infested Holly region. We marched only 13 miles, having halted at the only place where we could obtain shelter from the rain.


Page 439 Chapter XXIV. EXPEDITION TO ADDISON, W. VA.