Skirmishes at Dan’s Run and Kelley’s Island

Wednesday, June 26, 1861

In June 1861, mounted scouts from Lew Wallace’s 11th Indiana collided with Confederate cavalry near Dan’s Run and Kelly’s Island along the Upper Potomac. What began as a reconnaissance quickly erupted into two savage, close-quarters skirmishes that mortally wounded Richard Ashby, left Turner Ashby wounded, and claimed the life of the first Indiana soldier killed in the Civil War.

Narrative

The Skirmishes at Dan’s Run and Kelley’s Island were fought on Wednesday, June 26, 1861 between Union forces commanded by Col. Lewis “Lew” Wallace and Confederate forces commanded by Lt. Col. Turner Ashby in modern-day Mineral County, West Virginia. This inconclusive clash left both commanders wounded and previewed the savage intensity with which this conflict would be fought.

In mid-June 1861, Confederate Col. Ambrose Powell Hill arrived in Romney, Hampshire County, Virginia, with a small brigade to counter Col. Lewis “Lew” Wallace’s Indiana Zouaves, who guarded Cumberland on the Maryland state line. During their brief stay, Hill’s infantry destroyed B&O Railroad Bridge No. 21 and routed a small home guard unit. On June 19, the 7th Virginia Cavalry Regiment, led by sixty-two-year-old Col. Angus W. McDonald, arrived in Romney to relieve Hill. Hill’s infantry departed two days later.

General Robert E. Lee, overall commander of Virginia’s volunteers, tasked McDonald with disrupting the B&O Railroad, including the destruction of the Tray Run Viaduct over the Cheat River near Rowlesburg. The 1852 wrought iron bridge could not be replaced as easily as smaller, wooden bridges. Success would secure Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s left flank and sever the rail link between Washington, DC, and the northwestern states.

Several of McDonald’s companies, including the Mountain Rangers led by Richard Ashby, established Camp Washington on Washington Bottom Farm, a 700-acre property along a bend of the South Branch of the Potomac River about five and a half miles north of Romney. The farm belonged to George W. Washington, a distant relative of our first president. His imposing three-story Greek Revival home, Ridgedale, still stands today.

Thirty-two-year-old Turner Ashby Jr. and his younger brother Richard, 29, were born at Rose Bank Plantation in Fauquier County, Virginia. Turner Ashby’s Mountain Rangers were a prewar cavalry company. They joined McDonald’s command at Winchester on June 15. Two days later, Ashby was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 7th Virginia Cavalry, and Richard to captain of the Rangers.

With the arrival of McDonald’s regiment, Col. Lew Wallace felt more isolated than ever. His nearest support consisted of Pennsylvania Reserve units ordered not to leave their state. Hoping to gather intelligence on the enemy, Wallace ordered his men to commandeer horses for a scouting party, but they found only thirteen in “fair” condition. Led by Cpl. David B. Hay, the small force could do little beyond patrol the roads and provide advance warning.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s cavalry kept busy around Romney. On the morning of Wednesday, June 26, Turner and Richard Ashby rode out on separate missions. Turner took thirteen men on a reconnaissance toward Patterson’s Creek Depot on the Potomac River, twenty miles north of Romney. Richard, riding a jet-black steed, departed with twelve men and a local guide to arrest a Unionist suspected of passing information to the enemy.

After dividing his command, Richard likely led the smaller detachment to Green Spring Depot, across the river from Oldtown, then west along the B&O Railroad toward Patterson’s Depot. The larger party, sent to make the arrest, failed to find its suspect at home.

Corporal Hay and his scouts were also on the move that day. The thirteen mounted infantrymen rode south along the turnpike, now West Virginia Route 28, toward Frankfort, present-day Fort Ashby. From high ground overlooking the village, they spotted several dozen Confederates packed tightly into the street. Hay later told Wallace that opening fire would have been “too much like murder.”

In truth, even with the advantage of surprise, his small party was badly outnumbered. Wallace later wrote that Hay’s scouts tried to find an alternate route to Romney, but the country road they followed instead carried them away from town and back toward the railroad to the northeast.

Somewhere along the road, they encountered a woman watching the passing troopers from her porch. When Hay asked whether any “enemy” were nearby, she replied that they were only a few minutes up the road and exaggerated their numbers. The ruse had the opposite effect. “Boys, shall we fight or turn back?” Hay asked. “Fight!” his men answered. They spurred their horses forward and caught up with Richard Ashby’s detachment along the railroad tracks, about a half mile east of Dan’s Run. There, the road narrowed between a steep, rocky hillside and a deep railroad cut, leaving little room for mounted men to maneuver.

The Federals gave chase, firing from the saddle. Accounts of what followed vary, but most agree that a cattle guard or culvert separated Richard Ashby and his men from the open ground west of Dan’s Run, where they could turn to face their pursuers. Most of the Confederates cleared the obstacle, but Richard’s exhausted horse stumbled and fell, throwing him to the ground. The fight quickly became hand-to-hand. After a brief but savage struggle, during which Corporal Hay suffered multiple wounds, the Confederates broke away and escaped. Richard Ashby did not. Surrounded, he was beaten, shot, stabbed, and left for dead.

Corporal Hay and his scouts captured several Confederate horses and sought refuge on Kelly’s Island, a forested, almond-shaped island in the North Branch of the Potomac at the mouth of Dan’s Run. Two of their number rode off to find a wagon, as Hay’s wounds made it difficult for him to remain in the saddle. The island belonged to Maryland farmer Christopher Kelly, whom the Confederates had arrested and taken to Romney only days earlier. Lew Wallace and others later misidentified the island as lying at the mouth of Patterson Creek.

By then, it was afternoon. Alerted to the earlier fight, Turner Ashby rode to the scene, where the signs of a bloody struggle were unmistakable. Dan’s Run entered the Potomac through a stone culvert beneath the railroad. Following fresh tracks through the culvert, Ashby and his thirteen companions emerged in full view of Kelly’s Island, where Union scouts opened fire from behind brush and piles of driftwood. Without hesitation, and with a loud “whoop,” Ashby spurred his men into the river.

The fight became another close-quarters brawl—neither as brief as the Confederates boasted nor as heroic as the Hoosiers imagined. Although the Union scouts ultimately fled, Ashby’s reckless charge proved costly. Two of his men were killed and five wounded, including Ashby himself. Both sides greatly exaggerated the opposing force’s size and casualties, but overall, the Confederates got the worst of both engagements that day.

That night, Confederate reinforcements searched Kelly’s Island and found horses, weapons, jackets, and hats scattered across the ground. They also discovered Pvt. John C. Hollenbeck groaning in the brush and took him to a nearby farmhouse. Like Richard Ashby, Hollenbeck had been shot and stabbed. One Virginia trooper, Thomas H. McArthur, also suffered a knife wound to the face. Such wounds were uncommon during the Civil War and attest to the ferocity of the fighting.

Hollenbeck died that night, and his body was left on the porch for his comrades to recover the following morning. Wallace and the 11th Indiana later accused the Confederates of bayoneting Hollenbeck after his capture, a charge the Confederates vigorously denied. Hollenbeck was the first Indiana soldier killed in the Civil War.

Ashby and his men found his brother by the roadside as they returned to Camp Washington. They carried him back to Ridgedale and placed him in a bed, hoping he might recover. After clinging to life for a week, Richard died on July 3. Turner took the loss especially hard, writing to his sister, “I had rather it had been myself.” Richard was initially buried in Romney, but the brothers were later reinterred together in Winchester’s Stonewall Confederate Cemetery.

The skirmishes at Dan’s Run and Kelly’s Island marked the 11th Indiana’s final action in Virginia. In early July, Wallace and his regiment were ordered to join Maj. Gen. Robert Patterson’s army north of Winchester. From there, they returned to Indianapolis, where the regiment was mustered out and reorganized for three years’ service in early August.

Opposing Forces

Confederate

Col. Angus W. McDonald, Sr., Commanding

Unit	Commander(s)	Strength	Killed	Wounded	Captured
7th Virginia Cavalry, Co. A Fauquier Mountain Rangers	Lt. Col. Turner Ashby Cpt. Richard Ashby	28	3	6	0

Union

Col. Lewis Wallace, Commanding

Unit	Commander(s)	Strength	Killed	Wounded	Captured
11th Indiana Inf. Regiment	Cpl. David B. Hay	13	1	2	1

Casualties

Name	Unit	Killed	Mortally Wounded	Wounded
Cpt. Richard Ashby	7th Virginia Cavalry, Co. A		X
Pvt. O’Fanton / O’Forton	7th Virginia Cavalry, Co. A		X
Pvt. Oswald (Osbourn) Foley	7th Virginia Cavalry, Co. A	X
Pvt. John A. Ladd	7th Virginia Cavalry, Co. A			X
Pvt. Albert N. “Tip” Garrison	7th Virginia Cavalry, Co. A			X
Col. Turner Ashby	7th Virginia Cavalry, Co. A			X
Pvt. Bob Rector	7th Virginia Cavalry, Co. A			X
Pvt. Nathaniel “Nat” Grigsby	7th Virginia Cavalry, Co. A			X
Pvt. Thomas Hickerson McArthur	7th Virginia Cavalry, Co. A			X

Name	Unit	Killed	Mortally Wounded	Wounded
Cpl. David B. Hay	11th Indiana Infantry, Co. A			X
Pvt. John C. Hollenback	11th Indiana Infantry, Co. B		X
Pvt. Edward P. Thomas	11th Indiana Infantry, Co. K			X

Timeline

• June 13, 1861: Col. Lewis “Lew” Wallace and the 11th Indiana Infantry Regiment drive Confederate forces away from Romney, Virginia.

• June 17-19, 1861: Colonel Angus W. McDonald, Sr. forms the 7th Virginia Cavalry Regiment and establishes his headquarters in Romney, Virginia.

• June 19, 1861: Troops from the 3rd Tennessee and 13th Virginia Infantry Regiments burn the railroad bridge over the Potomac River at New Creek.

• June 26, 1861: Lt. Col. Turner Ashby and his brother, Capt. Richard Ashby, depart from Romney on a scouting mission towards the Potomac River.

Location

GPS Coordinates — 39.56411, -78.72447

Primary Sources

News Articles

Reports and Letters

• June 27th Report of Colonel Lew. Wallace, Eleventh Indiana Infantry (1st)
• June 27th Report of Colonel Lew. Wallace, Eleventh Indiana Infantry (2nd)

Durham, Thomas Wise. Three Years with Wallace’s Zouaves: The Civil War Memoirs of Thomas Wise Durham. Jeffrey L. Patrick, Ed. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2003.

Wallace, Lewis. Lew Wallace: An Autobiography, Vol. I. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1906.

Sources

Armstrong, Richard L. 7th Virginia Cavalry. The Virginia Regimental History Series. Lynchburg: H.E. Howard, Inc., 1992.

Avirett, James B. The Memoirs of General Turner Ashby and His Compeers. Baltimore: Selby & Dulany, 1867.

McDonald, William N. A History of the Laurel Brigade. Baltimore: Kate S. McDonald, 1907.

Merrill, Catharine. The Soldier of Indiana in the War for the Union. Indianapolis: Merrill and Company, 1866.

Stephens, Gail. Shadow of Shiloh: Major General Lew Wallace in the Civil War. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2010.

---