HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE KANAWHA,
Red House, July 14, 1861.
Maj. Gen. G. B. McCLELLAN,
Camp near Buckhannon, Va.:
GENERAL: We reached this place yesterday about 4 p. m., and I am waiting here to receive news of the advance of the Kentuckians along the route from Guyandotte and Ripley to concentrate on Charleston as I have ordered. My own advance has, I am sure, made theirs entirely safe, and I have great pleasure in assuring you that we have already greatly relieved all the country behind us from a reign of terror which was driving men from their pursuits and from the country. We have met no resistance worth mentioning thus far. The enemy’s forces have retreated as we have advanced, and we have exchanged a few shots with their scouts, nothing more. Your letter directed to Gallipolis giving me your first instructions did not reach me till yesterday, which was several days after I had ordered a regiment to Guyandotte. The reason for doing so was that armed parties were along the river between Guyandotte and Point Pleasant, and the very night of my arrival in Gallipolis they brought to a boat a few miles above Guyandotte and took from her a box of pistols and one of sabers belonging to private parties at Gallipolis. Knowing that we had considerable shipments of U. S. stores on the river, and that the river commerce should be secure, I was unwilling to leave that part of the country exposed, and thought it my duty to protect it, even at the expense of a temporary scattering of forces. I find that it has had no bad effect thus far. The rebels believed, as I am well informed, that my force in this valley is as great as the whole will be when concentrated, and suppose the Guyandotte force to be an additional column advancing, and I am confident of effecting the concentration in time for any necessity I may have, with the additional advantage of having produced a good moral effect upon the lower counties by the march of troops that way. My advance is steady, but not rapid. I scout the country ahead a day’s march in advance, and then move with a good advance guard on each side of the river, sending out skirmishers, the steamers following with the baggage and a regiment which can be thrown upon either side at need. At Knob Shoals, a couple of miles above Buffalo, and here at Red House are very difficult places in the navigation of the river. One of our boats grounded at Knob Shoals, and was in some danger of being injured or wrecked, but got off again without damage. I have two boats above the obstructions placed here by the enemy, which, although they make the passage difficult and a little dangerous, have not totally stopped the channel. The Kentucky regiments have found some impediments in the lack of tents, which were a little behind, and in the enormous quantity of their baggage, which has hindered their fully performing their part of my plan, and my arrival at Charleston may be a day later than I advised you in my last dispatch. I have issued a peremptory order to reduce the baggage to the regulation weight. The Eleventh Regiment are yet without tents. I have half of them quartered at Point Pleasant as a guard there and the rest here. No more artillery has arrived. Only thirty-eight of my horsemen have saddles, and the rest of the troop are waiting at Gallipolis for their equipments. My force here now is as follows: Four companies of Eleventh Regiment, the whole of Twelfth, whole of Twenty-first, two rifled cannon, with forty-nine men, two smooth-bore cannon without caissons or cannoneers. In the course of twenty-four hours I shall expect to be joined by half the First Kentucky Regiment, leaving the other half at Ripley, and in two or three days to be joined by the whole of the Second Kentucky. If my reconnaissance is satisfactory, I shall not wait for the latter short of Charleston.
Meanwhile I remain, general, truly and respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. D. COX,
Brigadier-General, Commanding District of the Kanawha.
Sources
The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series I, Vol. LI, Part I. With additions and corrections. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902.
Spirit of '61 