officers and men the commanding general makes grateful acknowledgment for services to which our brilliant success is due. The country will remember and reward you.

By command of Major-General Loring:

H. FITZHUGH,

Chief of Staff.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN VIRGINIA, Charleston, W. Va., September 20, 1862.

GENERAL: + * * * On the 6th instant I marched from near Giles Court-House for the Kanawha with my command, about 5,000 strong. The enemy at Raleigh fled at our approach and concentrated his force at Fayetteville, where I arrived on the 10th instant with the advance of my column, consisting of General Williams' and Colonel Wharton's brigades. After an obstinate resistance, commenced 2 miles from the town, the enemy was driven before us into his fortified positions at the town, consisting of formidable and regularly constructed and connected works, armed with nine pieces of artillery, and sheltering from 1,500 to 2,000 men, under command of Colonel Siber. I directed Colonel Wharton's brigade, to which was added Colonel [Geo. S.] Patton's Twenty-second Virginia Regiment, to turn the enemy's positions and cut his connections, while General Williams attacked him in front and on his right. Upon reaching his position, Colonel Wharton was attacked by nearly the whole force of the enemy, which he repulsed in gallant style, inflicting great loss and advancing our positions nearer to him. At this juncture, I ordered General Williams to move to a nearer and more commanding position, which he promptly did, driving the enemy's skirmishers within their fortifications. Here a violent firing of cannon and small-arms was kept up until after dark, when the enemy effected his escape toward the Gauley by means of one of the many roads in his rear, in his flight exposing a portion to his force to the fire of Colonel Wharton, by whom great loss was inflicted upon him and much of his train and stores captured. General Williams and Colonel Wharton pursued, rapidly followed by General Echols, who had now come up by a march longer than that of the other brigades, and accomplished in unexpectedly short time, and early enough to execute a movement to the enemy's left, planned for him on the next day if the enemy had not fled on the arrival of our re-enforcements.

At 10 o'clock the next day (the 11th) the enemy made a stand at a strong natural position on Cotton Hill; but this being turned by Colonel Wharton and General Echols, while General Williams engaged him in a sharp conflict in his front, he again fled after suffering much loss. His efforts to cross his troops over the Kanawha into the fortified positions at Gauley were prevented by the swiftness of the pursuit, which drove the larger portion of his column down the south bank of the Kanawha, while the remainder, on the opposite side of the river, was quickly overpowered and followed, but not before his magazines were blown up and his immense stores, accumulated at that point, were mostly destroyed.

It is proper that the gallantry of Dr. Joseph F. Watkins, surgeon of the Thirty-sixth Virginia Regiment, and several other soldier of the command, should be noticed and commended, who swarm the river in the

+Portion here omitted relates to Jenkins' expedition, August 22, 1862, and is printed in Series I, Vol. XII, Part II, pp.756,757.

68 R R-VOL XIX, PT I