Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1861-10-10
From Western Virginia.

-
ter of recent date, written by a
member of the Camargo Guards,
has kindly been furnished U.S.
Well, we have had little fight
ing and a greatdeal of hard work.
l scarcely know how to commence
relating our expedition, for it was
surely the widest, and most peril
Gus adventure ever undertaken
by body of civilized men, yes or
even savagcs. | viii first tell you
the plans that were laid before We
started, and then try to tell You
the adventure. The enemy are
located as l have told you, at Hut
louisville, the county seat of Ran
dolph county. From the best in
formation we could get, they were
10000 strong at that point Hut
louisville, then three miles imme-
diately on this side, they have
another camp 5000 strong, both
of which are strongly fortified
Then at Cheat Mountain,> ten
miles south of these other points,
they have a large force, and the
best natural dcfences in the world.
The plan was to take the two lat
ter points Cheat Mountain, and
the camp between us ard H. then
our forces were to concentrate on
Huttonsville and take it. jack
son with his artillery, was to at
tack Cheat Mountain, and Ander-
son with his Brigade was to flank
for him. Loring was to attack the
other place, and our Brigade, or
Donelson's, was to flank for him.
But Jackson made a failure, from
what cause | cannot learn, some
say he could not cross the river,
others say his guide left him in the
woods, but We all know this, that
it was the most complete failure
ever known, and resulted in a gen.
: eral retreat. Loring had 3,00Omen
and about ten six Founders, Don
elson had our Regiment, Savage's,
and part of the time Virginia
Regiment, also one small bore gun.
Anderson had Nancy, Hatton and
Forbes Regiments, Jackson had
several guns and tolerable good
force, making in all, comparative
ly speaking small force. | will
try to tell you how they all ma
), neuvred. On Monday, the 9th,
1--WE moved our Brigade up to Val
ley Mountain, Tuesday we all adj
>. vanced, Loring taking the road,
our Brigade and An'lerson's the
:. Mountains. The two Brigades
marched together until night, over
the largest mountains in Virginia,
without any road at all except
what they made az they went
making about s miles. That
night Anderson left us for Cheat
Mountain; next morning at day
light we started, to flank for Lor-
ing Or to get our portion clear to
their camp in order to be ready
next morning as that was the day
set for the battle, we travelled on,
our Regiment in advance, slowly
but steadily and silently; about
twelve O'Clock we struck their
picket, got right up on them before
they knew we were coming
There was only four of them
they give up without firing; we
/ then went on about half a mile
further and took another squad;
they saw us and started to run.
Our advance guard Capt. Bryant's
Company fired on them, killed
two and wounded another one very
badly; there was six of them; none
of them got away We then moved
on about a half further, and dis
covered about fifty at an old house;
we run up and took them without
firing gun. They were fine large
men and had the old musket rifed;
they belonged to the 10th Ohio.
! This was done in Stewards Run. We
were then in a close narrow gorge
between two large mountains, and
in two miles of their camp. We
then started across to get out as
our position was very perilous; we
travelled across the mountains
which was about three miles, there
we stopped and held a council of
war. They concluded Oonelson,
Fulton, and Savage) to go to
Crouches, who lived one mile and
half from the camps; the distance
G,o,,o boro RI Crouches being about