Five companies of
the Twenty-third Ohio and five companies of the Ninth Ohio arrived to-day, and
are encamped in a maple grove about a mile below us. A detachment of cavalry
came up also, and is quartered near. Other regiments are coming. It is said the
larger portion of the troops in West Virginia are tending in this direction;
but on what particular point it is proposed to concentrate them rumor saith
not.
General McClellan
did not go far enough at first. After the defeat of Pegram, at Rich Mountain,
and Garnett, at Laurel Hill, the Southern army of this section was utterly
demoralized. It scattered, and the men composing it, who were not captured,
fled, terror stricken, to their homes. We could have marched to Staunton
without opposition, and taken possession of the very strongholds the enemy is
now fortifying against us. If in our advanced position supplies could not have
been obtained from the North, the army might have subsisted off the country.
Thus, by pushing vigorously forward, we could have divided the enemy's forces,
and thus saved our army in the East from humiliating defeat. This is the way it
looks to me; but, after all, there may have been a thousand good reasons for
remaining here, of which I know nothing. One thing, however, is, I think, very
evident: a successful army, elated with victory, and eager to advance, is not
likely to be defeated by a dispirited opponent. One-fourth, at least, of the
strength of this army disappeared when it heard of the rebel triumphs on the
Potomac.
SOURCE: John
Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 65-6
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