Camp Number 5, Princeton, May 5, 1862.
Sir: — This
whole region is completely conquered. Rapid movement is all that is needed to
take possession of the railroad and several good counties without opposition.
Militiamen are coming in glad to take the oath and get home "to work
crops." A part of Jenifer's force retreated through Tazewell, abandoning
Jeffersonville and it is reported burning it. Humphrey Marshall is
reported on the railroad and near or at Wytheville. The Forty-fifth retreated
on to Giles abandoning the Narrows, leaving the position deserted. These are
the reports. Not perfectly reliable, but I am inclined to credit them. At the
Rocky Gap many muskets even were burned, the militiamen thinking it safer to
return home unarmed. There is a report from Tazewell that a battalion of
cavalry is approaching through Logan and McDowell, the other part of the Second
Virginia. If so they will meet with no opposition worth naming. It is about
certain that the enemy had but one cannon at the Narrows. All I give you is
rumor, or the nature of rumor, except the conduct and disposition of the new
militia. I hear that from their own lips. An active command can push to the
railroad, taking coffee, salt, and sugar, and subsist itself long enough to get
the railroad from Newbern a hundred miles west. I speak of the future in the
way of suggestion that your thoughts may turn towards planning enterprises
before the scare subsides. The rations I speak of because we ought to
have a larger supply of some things, counting upon the country for the others.
Colonel Little will send in reports perfectly reliable as to the Narrows
tomorrow. I hear a report that the enemy — the Forty-fifth — didn't stop at
Giles but kept on towards Newbern! I give these reports as showing the drift of
feeling in this country, and [as] hints at truth rather than truth itself.
Monday night. — I now have reliable information of the
enemy, I think. It differs in many respects from rumors mentioned in the
foregoing. The Forty-fifth Regiment during Friday and Saturday straggled back
to its camp at the mouth of Wolf Creek, a short distance above the Narrows.
About four-fifths of the force got back foot-sore, without hats, coats,
knapsacks, and arms in many cases. In the course of Friday and Saturday a
considerable part (perhaps half) of the cavalry we drove from here reached the
same point (mouth of Wolf Creek) having passed through Rocky Gap and thence
taken the Wolf Creek and Tazewell Road easterly. On Saturday evening they were
preparing to leave camp; the Forty-fifth to go to Richmond whither they had
just been ordered, and the cavalry and the few militia were to go with them as
far as Dublin. The militia were uncertain whether they were to remain at Dublin
or go west to the Salt Works in Washington and Wythe Counties. They all
expected to be gone from Wolf Creek and the Narrows during Sunday. There would
be no fighting the Yankees this side of Dublin — possibly at Dublin a fight.
The militia of Wythe, Grayson, and Carroll, seven hundred strong, are the force
[at] Wytheville. At Abbington, one thousand [of] Floyd's men. In Russell County
Humphrey Marshall is still reported with three thousand men badly armed and
worse disciplined. The great Salt Works (King's) work four hundred [men], ten
furnaces, and turn out seventeen hundred bushels every twenty-four hours. No
armed force there. All this from contrabands and substantially correct.
Later. — Seven more contrabands just in. They report that on
Sunday the Forty-fifth and other forces, except about thirty guards of baggage,
left the vicinity of the Narrows arriving at Giles Court-house Sunday afternoon
on their way to Dublin Depot; that from there they expected to go west to
Abbington. The contrabands passed the Narrows; only a small guard was there
with a few tents and wagons. No cannon were left there. I do not doubt the
general truthfulness of the story. It confirms the former. The enclosed letters
perhaps contain something that ought to be known to General Fremont; if so you
can extract a fact or two to telegraph. They were got from the last mail sent
here by the Rebels. The carrier stopped seven miles south of here and the mail
[was] picked up there.
I wish to send three companies or so to the Narrows
immediately to see if we can catch the guard and baggage left behind. If you
approve send me word back immediately and I will start the expedition in the
morning.
Latest. — Two more contrabands!! We can surely get the
baggage in six hours (eighteen miles) without difficulty. Do send the
order.
Respectfully,
R. B. Hayes,
Lieutenant-colonel 23D Regiment O. V. I.,
Commanding Detachment.
[colonel Scammon.]
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 251-3
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