COLUMBUS, OHIO,
August 6, 1861.
The undersigned, having heard erroneous accounts of the manner in which the remnant of Garnett’s Command made their escape from the United States troops, under Brigadier-General C. W. Hill, and having also heard it stated that the advance guard of General Hill’s Command was at one time in sight of the enemy, hereby makes the following statement:
That on the morning of July 14, I was, by Colonel [James] Irvine, commanding Sixteenth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Militia, placed in command of a detachment of the Ringgold Cavalry, then at Hoy’s House, about five miles east of the Red House, and directed by Colonel Irvine to advance and ascertain, if possible, the position, etc. of the enemy.
I immediately moved my party forward along the turnpike until beyond the northwest branch of the Potomac River (two miles east of Hoy’s), occasionally meeting and capturing small bodies of the Rebels, and making prisoners of all of the enemy I saw. I pushed forward part of my command about a mile beyond the bridge. I was fully three miles in advance of the point where our riflemen halted, who, in turn, were some distance ahead of our main body, and at no time (upon information received from prisoners and residents along the turnpike) was I nearer than four or five miles of the enemy’s rear guard.
I followed the tracks of the enemy’s guns to the North Branch Bridge, but could not trace them further, the guns having evidently been moved from rear to front at that point. There were none of our forces in advance of me on that day.
D. W. MARSHALL,
Adjutant, Sixteenth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Militia.
Sources
Hewett, Janet B., Noah Andre Trudeau, and Bryce A, Suderow, eds., Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Pt. I, Vol. 1. Wilmington: Broadfoot Publishing Company, 1994.
Spirit of '61 