en policy of
the Administration at Washington and with public sentiment generally
in the North.

Colonel George A. Porterfield, on May 4th, was ordered by Robert
E. Lee, then in command of the Virginia forces, to repair to Grafton,
the junction of two branches of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,
and there assemble the Confederate troops with a view to holding
that part of the State of Virginia; in case, however, he failed in
this and was unable permanently to hold that railroad, he was
instructed to cut it.

On June 8th, General R. S. Garnett was assigned by Lee to the
command of the Confederate troops of Northwestern Virginia.

The Union forces under Col. B. F. Kelley, 1st Virginia Volunteers,
occupied Grafton May 30th, the forces under Porterfield having
retired without a fight to Philippi, about sixteen miles distant
on a turnpike road leading from Webster (four miles from Grafton)
over Laurel Hill to Beverly. As roads are few in Western Virginia,
and as this road proved to be one of great importance in the campaign
upon which we are just entering, it may be well to say that it
continues through Huttonville, across Tygart's Valley River, through
Cheat Mountain Pass over the summit of Cheat Mountain, thence
through Greenbrier to Staunton at the head of the Shenandoah Valley.
At Beverly it is intersected by another turnpike from Clarksburg,
through Buchannon _via_ Middle Fork Bridge, Roaring Creek (west of
Rich Mountain), Rich Mountain Summit, etc. From Huttonville a road
leads southward up the Tygart's Valley River, crossing the mouth
of Elk Water about seven miles from Huttonville, thence past Big
Springs on Valley Mountain to Huntersville, Virginia. The region
through which these roads pass is mountainous.

Ohio and Indiana volunteers made up the body of the army under
McClellan. These troops assembled first in the vicinity of Grafton.
The first camp the 3d Ohio occupied was at Fetterman, two miles west
of Grafton. Porterfield made a halt at Philippi, where he gathered
together about eight hundred poorly-armed and disciplined men.
Detachments under Col. B. F. Kelley and Col. E. Dumont of Indiana,
surprised him, June 3d, by a night march, and captured a part of
his command, much of his supplies, and caused him to retreat with
his forces disorganized and in disgrace. There Colonel Kelley was
seriously wounded by a pistol shot. General Garnett, soon after
the affair at Philippi, collected about four thousa