Arrived at Bellaire
at 3 P. M. There is trouble in the neighborhood of Grafton. Have been ordered
to that place.
The Third is now on
the Virginia side, and will in a few minutes take the cars.
SOURCE: John Beatty,
The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 9
Reached Grafton at 1
P. M. All avowed secessionists have run away; but there are, doubtless, many
persons here still who sympathize with the enemy, and who secretly inform him
of all our movements.
SOURCE: John Beatty,
The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 9
Colonel Marrow and I
dined with Colonel Smith, member of the Virginia Legislature. He professes to
be a Union man, but his sympathies are evidently with the South. He feels that
the South is wrong, but does not relish the idea of Ohio troops coming upon
Virginia soil to fight Virginians. The Union sentiment here is said to be
strengthening daily.
SOURCE: John Beatty,
The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 9-10
Arrived at
Clarksburg about midnight, and remained on the cars until morning. We are now
encamped on a hillside, and for the first time my bed is made in my own tent.
Clarksburg has
apparently stood still for fifty years. Most of the houses are old style, built
by the fathers and grandfathers of the present occupants. Here, for the first
time, we find slaves, each of the wealthier, or, rather, each of the
well-to-do, families owning a few.
There are probably
thirty-five hundred troops in this vicinity—the Third, Fourth, Eighteenth,
Nineteenth, and part of the Twenty-second Ohio, one company of cavalry, and one
of artillery. Rumors of skirmishes and small fights a few miles off; but as yet
the only gunpowder we have smelled is our own.
SOURCE: John Beatty,
The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 10
At twelve o'clock
to-day our battalion left Clarksburg, followed a stream called Elk creek for
eight miles, and then encamped for the night. This is the first march on foot
we have made. The country through which we passed is extremely hilly and
broken, but apparently fertile. If the people of Western Virginia were united
against us, it would be almost impossible for our army to advance. In many
places the creek on one side, and the perpendicular banks on the other, leave a
strip barely wide enough for a wagon road.
Buckhannon, twenty
miles in advance of us, is said to be in the hands of the secession troops.
To-morrow, or the day after, if they do not leave, a battle will take place.
Our men appear eager for the fray, and I pray they may be as successful in the
fight as they are anxious for one.
SOURCE: John Beatty,
The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 10-11
It is half-past
eight o'clock, and we are still but eight miles from Clarksburg. We were
informed this morning that the secession troops had left Buckhannon, and fallen
back to their fortifications at Laurel Hill and Rich mountain. It is said
General McClellan will be here to-morrow, and take command of the forces in
person.
In enumerating the
troops in this vicinity, I omitted to mention Colonel Robert McCook's Dutch
regiment, which is in camp two miles from us. The Seventh Ohio Infantry is now
at Clarksburg, and will, I think, move in this direction to-morrow.
Provisions outside
of camp are very scarce. I took breakfast with a farmer this morning, and can
say truly that I have eaten much better meals in my life. We had coffee without
sugar, short-cake without butter, and a little salt pork, exceedingly fat. I
asked him what the charge was, and he said "Ninepence," which means
one shilling. I rejoiced his old soul by giving him two shillings.
The country people
here have been grossly deceived by their political leaders. They have been made
to believe that Lincoln was elected for the sole purpose of liberating the
negro; that our army is marching into Virginia to free their slaves, destroy their
property, and murder their families; that we, not they; have set the
Constitution and laws at defiance, and that in resisting us they are simply
defending their homes and fighting for their constitutional rights.
SOURCE: John Beatty,
The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 11-12
