HDQRS. OHIO AND INDIANA PROV. BRIG.,
UNITED STATES VOLUNTEER MILITIA,
Buckhannon, Va., July 3, 1861.
GENERAL: Of the matters on which I wished to consult was the order to be given to the detached portion of the Seventeenth Ohio Regiment. Colonel Connell, with Lieutenant-Colonel Pond and four companies of the regiment, was detached and landed at Petroleum on the 26th ultimo, with orders to proceed to Hughes’s River, and take position to command the Staunton road and the road from Glenville through Burning Springs to Parkersburg, and await orders. Subsequently he received an additional supply of provisions, and directions to proceed to Glenville, and thence to Weston, unless unforeseen circumstances should require other action. Since then Colonel Tyler informed me that he was thirty-seven miles west of Glenwood. I wrote Colonel Tyler to communicate with him and gave no further orders, until I knew you views of the forces in that direction.
One company, under Captain Stinchcomb, of Colonel Sill’s (Connell’s) regiment, was detailed as a train guard during the 24th to 25th ultimo, when I was removed from the opportunity of communicating with them. Three companies, under Major Steele, a very enterprising officer of that regiment, was detached at Clarksburg on the 27th to proceed to Parkersburg, and there take boats for Ripley, Ravenswood, and Belleville.
The major arrived in Parkersburg on Friday, the 28th. On the same evening he embarked on two steamboats, commanded by Captain Kountz, and reached a landing two miles below Ravenswood with two companies, leaving the other steamboat to land above Belleville, and march down and take it while the two landed at Ravenswood.
The major proceeded to Ripley, which he reached at 4 a. m. of the 29th. He placed his advance guard hidden from sight, and having surrounded the place, completely surprised it, capturing the postmaster and some eighty other secessionists. He administered the oath of allegiance to the captives; installed the postmaster newly appointed by the Government; took the captive postmaster with him to Ravenswood, where they captured all they could, and swore them in as at Ripley. The other company landed and cleared Belleville. Major Steele deemed it prudent to leave two companies (D and I) at Ravenswood, and brought the other one to Clarksburg, which he reached on the morning of the ——. One company remains in Parkersburg. This being the position of the detachment of the Seventeenth, the question arises, what shall be done with them?
Will you send down all the companies of the Twenty-second to Parkersburg, to enable Gilmore to test the three years’ question, and return the three companies of the Seventeenth, that they may rejoin this brigade? What orders will you give for Colonel Connell? An answer to these questions seems necessary before I can give orders to Major Steele. I send this with no expectation of immediate.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
W. S. ROSECRANS.
Maj. Gen. G. B. McCLELLAN,
U. S. Army, Comdg. Dep’t of the Ohio, Buckhannon, Va.
Sources
The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series I, Vol. II. With additions and corrections. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902.
Spirit of '61 