asked specially for an independent partisan command, subject only to the general laws and orders of the service. When I came to Richmond late in May form a sick bed the President himself changed the destination of my command. I was called by him to take a commission at once as brigadier-general, not to await the raising of my partisan brigade, but to command the Middle Department of the West, the State volunteers forces, under Colonel Tompkins, in the valley of the Kanawha, to be attached to my Ligion.

Very early in June I left Richmond an invalid, without a man or a gun, and department for Charleston, Kanawha, and commenced raising the forces which since I have commanded. In June and July Colonel Tompkins' volunteer force was increased form 600 to about 1,800 men, and the Legion was raised to the number of about 2,850; making in all an effective force of about 3,600 men.

By a dispatch from Adjutant-General S. Cooper, dated July 18, 1861, I was ordered to move up toward Covington and communicate with General Floyd, who was ordered to proceed in that direction. This order being in part discretionary, I awaited events and further orders before I proceeded to ct under it. Soon afterwards I received a letter from General Robert E. Lee, dated July 24, directing me to look to the security of my rear, keep my command concentrated,a nd be prepared to unite with General Loring or operate as circumstances on my line of communication might dictate. He gave me permission to increase the strength of my Legion, but warned me that re-enforcements could not be sent to me from Richmond, from the necessity of restricting the operations of the enemy, if possible, north of Pocahontas, and of strengthening the armies of the Potomac. He had hoped that the good citizens of the Kanawha Valley would have rallied under my standard and give me the force I desired, not knowing the utter demoralization and denationalization of a large majority of the good citizens of Kanawha Valley, and ignorant also that even among some of those who professed to be true to the State of Virginia a conspiracy had been raised against my taking command of the valley of the Kanawha. Thus, whilst my aim was upon the enemy, every step was amid the rattlesnakes of treason to the South or petty serpents of jealousy in the disaffection of my own camp. Yet with the aid of Colonel Tompkins, a gentleman, a soldier, and a patriot, I magnified our command by nearly trebling his original numbers and adding the whole number of the Legion, making in all nearly eight times the force we began with.

General Lee also regretted that he could not furnish the ammunition and arms which were incessantly called for by Colonel Tompkins and myself; and it was a secret which neither of us dared to tell in the Kanawha Valley, that at no time of the whole sixty days while we were marching and countermarching, posting and conterposting, scouting and fighting, day in and day out, in a valley the hardest to defend and the easiest to be attacked in the topography of the country, could we at any time have fired in any general action ten rounds of ammunition in our joint commands. Thus distant front he metropolis, thus unofficered and unorganized, thus unsupplied with either arms, ammunition, clothing, or tents, we increased our forces, maintained our positions, and it was only when the order to fall back was repeated that we moved in the direction of Covington, as ordered.

Whatever may have been said or may be said of that retreat form Charleston, from Coal River, and Tyler Mountain, Two Mile, Elk River, and Gauley, I aver, if anything was done which ought not to have been done, or omitted which ought not to have been omitted, or was lost.