July 31, 1861.
The company divided on July 7; twenty-five privates and a Second Lieutenant were sent to Cheat River under command of Colonel [J.] Irvine. The remainder were kept on duty at Grafton and vicinity till July 13, when I left with twenty-five men on the cars for Oakland as a part of General Hill’s Command. The remaining twenty-five men, with the First Lieutenant, were left in Grafton and vicinity until July 15, when they came forward to Oakland.
Myself and twenty-five men arrived at Oakland at or about 11 o’clock p.m., July 13, but it took till daylight before we could get our horses off the cars and cared for. We were up and engaged in this work all night. Neither horses nor men had any food from noon of July 13 till the morning of July 14 and then had great difficulty in getting anything for either and a great deal of time was consumed in getting a supply pressed into service for one meal.
About 9 a.m. of July 14, we got news that the enemy had escaped, and immediately moved forward with General Hill, under his order, to the Red House. There he ordered me, with seventeen picked men, to press on and report to Colonel Irvine for reconnaissance to the front, the other eight men being detained by General Hill for special service after he should get such facts from prisoners and others as he needed for his guidance.
I did as I was directed—pressed forward in pursuit of the enemy, passing all of our bodies of foot troops and at a mile and a half or two miles in their advance, joined the twenty-five scouts with the Second Lieutenant who had been serving with Colonel Irvine for the last seven days.
There were now about forty of my men together. I inquired of them then, and have since particularly, as to the whereabouts of the enemy, and learned from them and my own observation that only a few stragglers were at any time seen by any of our party. None of my men at any time came in sight of the enemy’s rear guard.
A mounted officer serving with us under the command of Colonel Irvine—I think his Adjutant—was forward with my men, and under his orders the scouts from my company gave up the pursuit, and returned to the infantry at the point where the council was held by General Hill. I will say, in conclusion, that by his order and with General Hill we went forward from Oakland at the gallop and with all the speed our horses could possibly endure, not stopping for a moment by the way until we reached the Red House and then only for a moment.
We were again ordered, and went forward, at the rate of not less than ten or twelve miles per hour, passing all the foot troops by the way, and were halted as before stated.
JOHN KEYS,
Captain, Commanding Ringgold Cavalry,
Pennsylvania Volunteers.
Reason for delay of this report: immediately after coming back from Oakland I was again ordered to take an escort of twenty-five men and go with General Reynolds to Beverly, which I did. When there, it was thought necessary that we escort the General to camp, at the foot of Cheat Mountain, where we arrived the second day and again proceeded to camp on the summit of Cheat Mountain and back on the same day by 2 o’clock. On the following day, July 29, we again started for Grafton as an escort to General [Newton] Schleich and Captain Cram, United States Army; we camped at Beverly over night, and reached Grafton the evening of July 30.
J. KEYS,
Captain.
Brigadier-General C. W. HILL.
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 