Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-07-23

quartermaster stores at Meadows Bluff,
about FIVE or six days march from Lynch
burg. More than a million rations, about
five or six days previous, had been left
there by Generals Crook and Averill, IN
der charge of two regiments of Ohio mil
itiA, sworn into the service for one hun
dred days. With these rations taken up
our command could then await its Ammu-
milton train under Gen. SJahel and con-
tinue to threaten Lyncbburg, none then
knowing or suspecting that the two Ohio
militia regiments bad been stampeded by
q force of about seventy or eighty guerril-
las. under Captain McNeill, and that they
had retired in confusion towards Loup
creek and CheVarston, burning about one
half the stores left in their charge, aud
carrying the remainder with them ia such
transportation as they had on hand.
OF the difficulties encountered and SUR
mounted by General Hunter in this march
from near Lynchburg TO LOup creek it is
not proposed to speak. AT Liberty the
enemy in force were hsdsomely repulsed,
and again near Salem. Our men had no
food but the beef and sheep they drove be-
| fore them or collected on the way. Our
march was over wild and abrupt noun
tains, forest clad precipices yawning be-
meath US on one side of the road, while
of feet above us on the other. The disap-
pointment in not receiving the expected
supplies at Meadows Bluff was severe; but
nevertheless the command held-on, in good
heart and health, until it neared Gauley
bridge, where the supply trains ordered up
| by General Hunter began to meet US.
With the exception of six guns, which
| had been rendered unserviceable by a sud
den attack OF the enemy on this side OF
Salem, and which had therefore to be de-
stroyed by ourselves, we lost nothing of
baggage or the material of our army in this
raid. Our infantry reached Loup creek in
better health than they had started with,
but were sorely in need of food, ammuni-
tion and new outfit. Most Of the cavalry
horses were played out from the want of
forage, but, taking it for all in all, no raid
of the war has yet inflicted so much loss of
vital kind upon the enemy at so little a
sacrifice OF men and material. For two
hundred and forty miles up the Shenan-
doah valley we had destroyed every public
work intended for the benefit of the enc
my's army. Furnaces, foundries for shot
and shell, gunstock factories, cloth mills,
tan yards, railroads, factories of ali kinds,
&C., our line of march being marked by
pillar of smoke by day aud pillar of FIRE
by night, formed FROM the couAagration Ot
the public buildings of the enemy's gov
ernment. OF private property nothing was
injured with the exception Of Governor
LeIoher's house, he having the day pre-
Vious issued a proclamation against US,
melting the inhabitants of the country to
a guerilla warfare.
1t was not until General Hunter, in ad-
vance of his command reached Parkers-
burgh, in Western Virginia, that we
heard syllable of the rebel raid into
Maryland All that could be done to
hurry forward our troops was at once
energetically undertaken; but there were
not over twenty or twenty-three inches
of water in the Ohie, and the railroad
from Cumberland to Harper's Ferry had
been pretty we'll crippled by the enemy,
though not one-fftieth part so effectually
as we had destroyed their railroads in
the vicinity of Staunton and Lynchburg.
In the task of re-equipping and hurrying
forward our troops towards Maryland
General Hunter labored with his usual
tireless zeal and conscientious fidelity,
being nobly seconded by the efforts of
Brigadier General Kelly, who was in
command at Cumberland
For the disgraceful stampede which
had driven General Sigel back from Mar
tinsburg to Maryland Heights without
contest, it is not easy to see how General
Hunter can be held responsible. He
had left under General Sigel total of
over ten thousand men, and yet this force
retired before an undevelOped enemy, |
having lost $50 far as can be ascertained)
somewhat less than thirty-five men, all
told, "killed wounded and missing"
This was the extent of the gallant and !
stubborn resistance" by which General |
Sigel "Saved his invaluable train," and |
sent it into Baltimore. But can General |
Hunter be held responsible for the mis- |
conduct of this officer, when we recollect |
that he had been ordered, on assuming |
command, to ''retain General Sigel in |
employment" General SigePs rank Civ
ing him no option but to offer to that
officer the next position to his own.
As for the rest, the success of the rebel |
raid into Maryland is clearly due to the |
want of foresight and adequate prepaS |
ratiOns in other than Gen. Hunters head |
quarters. Gen. Hunters location was |
thoroughly well known to the war au-
thorities, who are understood to have sent |
him warm acknowledgements for the brill |
liant achievements of his raid, and the |
successful manner IN which he had |
drawn off his command uninjured from |
that hazardous service. With scarcely |
any water in the Ohio, and the railroad |
between Cumberland and Harper's Ferry
broken in more than a dozen places, it |
was physical impossibiIity for any por-
tion of Hunters army to have reached |
Maryland in time to repel the rebel inVa-
sion; but, owing to General Hunters |
personal exertions and unceasing Iabors, |
more than ten thousand Of his men were |
within striking distance of the retreating
enemy two days ago.
To talk of pursuit however, from the
North of trains going South, and guarded |
by so large a force as Generals Early, |
Ransom and Breckinridge have under
them is the sheerest nonsense. But as
the supreme command of this pursuing |
fOrca such ne If is-and II IA very for