Pocahontas County History Preservation, Digitization, Community

June 2, 1861

Sabbath morning, June 2, 1861.--Religious services were held on a lawn attached to a private residence. The speakers and leaders occupied the portico. the Rev. Mr. Hindman, a resident pastor of the M. E. Church, gave a timely, practical discourse on the blessings of faith. At the conclusion I was asked to lead in the closing services, which I improved as an opportunity for a somewhat extended exhortation in which I delivered a message to our boys sent them by their mothers, sisters, and devoted young friends from Highland County. The purport of the message was "to be good and brave," and avoid all temptations of the army camp, fight the god fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life. That afternoon two young ladies rode rapidly down from the bridge and were hailed in the street about opposite the Court House by parties that recognized them as acquaintances and it was learned in a few minutes that they were young ladies from Fairmont with a message for Col. Porterfield and the were shown to headquarters by their soldier acquaintances. The sudden arrival of these young ladies, the Misses Mollie Kerr and Mollie McLeod, was the sensation of the afternoon bringing, as it turned out, intelligence that the Union forces were quite strong at Grafton and that an attack was planned for Sunday night on the Virginia troops at Philippa or on the following morning at the fartherest.

These young lady couriers had left Fairmont Sunday morning at a suspiciously early hour, heading for Philippa, and were unexpectedly detained at a blacksmith shop where they were closely questioned by a Union citizen--a stranger to them. Under assumed names they professed that they were on a visit to some friends in Barbour County and would certainly return that evening. The citizen appeared satisfied and passed on in the direction of Fairmont. The young ladies in the meantime rode rapidly on towards Webster, but they were soon overtaken by this same Union man. He passed them and kept far ahead of them. Suspecting his purpose they chewed up some letters concealed about their persons and prepared themselves for being searched. Then they came to Webster they found a large excited crowd of peopled collected and were closely interrogated, but the young ladies replied by proposing to submit to a search by any respectable woman whom the crowd might offer. Upon this they were permitted to pass on without searching and in about two hours reached Philippa and communicated the information about the intended attack.

Instructions were at once given for the Virginia troops to be in marching order at 5 p.m. I prepared myself accordingly and in compliance with an invitation given by a citizen living near Belington, I started out with him a few minutes before five o'clock. He was afoot and so we rode and walked alternately. His name was Thornhill. We reached his place about dark and found the place much crowded. Our accommodations were nevertheless very pleasant and ample. Upon retiring that night all seemed prognostic of a quiet and restful time. Parson Rives of Philippa and myself had a nice room all to ourselves.

About daybreak Mrs. Morrall, who had come from Philippa, sometime during the night with her aged mother, came hurriedly to our room and asked what could that noise be down towards Philippa. Parson Rives, my bedfellow, jumped up and upon going out said it was cannonading and a battle must be going on at or near Philippa. I was not long after him and while I was listening I heard but one report, but could not be sure whether it was by cannon or by a volley of musketry. For an hour or more all was quiet, but the silence was rudely broken in about two hours by fugitives rushing along the road as if for dear life, spreading the news that the town had been cannonaded and the Virginians were in full retreat coming on, pursued by the Union men.

A person, a stranger to me, having stripes on his uniform, was giving orders that all who might have guns should post themselves in ambuscade and take his men as they came along. These orders caused great consternation in our party, consisting mostly of ladies, young and old. There being a buggy convenient I suggested that Mrs. Morrall and her aged mother be placed in it and driven some distance from the road, which was done, and they knew where to find safe and pleasant refuge. Most all of the other ladies crossed a hill nearby, where they were out of sight and threatened danger.

As for my part, being without arms, the extemporized officer had no authority over me, so I gathered up my luggage and prepared to fall back on Beverly. In the party that had stayed at the Thornhill's was a young refugee lady from Fairmont, mounted on a very fine horse. She introduced herself to me in a very pleasant modest manner and told me some things about her history. Her brother was a lieutenant in the Provisional Army of Virginia, that her father was a refugee from Fairmont, and that by some means during the confusion at Philippa on Sunday evening she and her father had gotten separated. If my memory serves me faithfully his name was Alfred Haymond. I found the young lady quite spritely and agreeable. I had her go with me from Mr. Thornhill's to Beverly. We lost sight of each other in the vicinity of Beverly during the days of confusion that transpired upon the arrival of the Virginia troops from Philippa, halting a while at Beverly and then moving on to Huttonsville.

I reference to the attack on Philippa, the following is a resume of particulars gathered from the camp gossip of the time.

When the troops were properly in marching order Sunday evening, June 2, 1861, instructions were given to eat supper and wait for further orders. The officers in charge of the pickets and scouts were directed to bring in all by midnight an,if it was not raining, the march to Beverly would begin. The scouts reported at 12 o'clock and the pickets withdrawn and so, from midnight on, neither videttes nor pickets were on duty. Captain Sterrett of the Churchville Cavalry had supposed from the character of the instructions received by him that it was his duty to await further orders and so did Captain Stofer, officer in charge of the pickets.

In the meantime the Union troops were advancing unobserved and unmolested and prepared for the attack at dawn. The first intimation the Virginians had of the Union men's approach was the firing of artillery from an eminence beyond the bridge on the opposite side of the river from the cavalry camp. It appeared that the Unionists had adopted this plan of assault: Philippa was to be approached at the north end by two divisions, while a flanking attachment was to enter by the south road simultaneously, cutting off all retreat. It seemed to have been intended that the attack should be brought on by the infantry upon the sleeping soldiers, followed up by the artillery opening up on the cavalry camps at the northern end of the town. Had this plan of battle been carried out the Virginians would have all been slain or captured.

Through a very manifest Providence interposing, as the writer views it, confusion was brought upon the design of the Unionist by the assault opening with the artillery. This gave the Virginians time to leave town before the infantry could cut off the retreat. The flanking part of the Unionists came into position just as the last of the Virginians were passing out of the town by the southern road. On the part of the Virginians not a one was reported lost. Two or three were seriously wounded--LeRoy Dangerfield of the Bath Cavalry and Private Hanger of the Churchville Cavalry.

The Unionists had their commanding officer, Col. B. F. Kelly, severely wounded, near the southern extremity of town, and as soon as that occurred all purpose seemed to have ceased. The credit of this exploit was accredited to three persons: Pvt. Shafer of Capt. Felix Hull's Highlanders; Lieut. Archie McClintic of the Bath Cavalry; and Pvt. Jacob W. Mathews of a Tygart's Valley Company. The probabilities lean in favor of Mathews, but it seemed he was not inclined to press the matter as there was honor enough for them all, provided there be any honor in such an exploit.

It was reported among the Virginians at the time of their sojourn at Huttonsville that several of the Unionists were slain by their own people, while possibly a few might have been killed or wounded by the Virginians. Not very many, however, as only eight or ten Virginia soldiers were known to have used their guns. At the time referred to in this diary it was regarded as a well established fact that the Union artillery cannonaded their own troops by mistake. Persons claiming to have been at Philippa since the engagement report that nearly a hundred new graves were to be counted there. The Unionists captured over four hundred stand of arms and about all the clothing and camp equipage.

The Virginians reached Beverly in much confusion, very much broken in spirit, and their privations for several days were very grievous indeed t the most of them, having so recently left homes abounding with every personal comfort. One soldier whom I had known from his early boyhood and at whose opulent home I had spent much of my time for two or three years, I recognized in my rounds of the camp near Huttonsville. He greeted me in a very cordial manner and insisted that I should take breakfast with him for the sake of old acquaintance: "I must tell you that I have nothing but a piece of sugar maple and a piece of beef cooked on the coals but it does not taste so bad to a hungry man."

With a mischievous twinkle in his eye he inquired about Harry Lightfoot, as my horse was called, how he liked wartimes. He then told how Harry Lightfoot had spilled him and his brother "Marsh" in the big road for shooting a gun over his head in order to train him for what he might have to go through with if people did not talking so much about war. This young soldier was Charles Francisco of the Bath Squadron, who died in Pennsylvania in 1863, of a wound received July 3.

The scenes between Beverly and Huttonsville and beyond were very sad. Numbers of men overcome by hunger, fatigue, or sickness would lie upon the damp and muddy ground, apparently sound asleep. Others deemed themselves exceedingly fortunate to find a piece of plank or space on a bare floor in a dwelling or barn where they might seek relief from fatigue by sleep. It looked as if the risks in actual battle were but few compared to the risks of exposure, fatigue, and disease, and that an early death would be the fate of many of these choice people.