HDQRS. DEPT. OF SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA,
Fayette Court-House, W. Va., September 11, 1862.

To the Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH,
Secretary of War.

SIR: After a fatiguing march, I came upon the enemy near this place on yesterday at 1.30 p.m. with the part of my forces which were in front. After contesting every inch of my advance for some miles, he entered his fortifications at this place, which were strong, and consisted of formidable outer works inclosing a quadrangular fort with glacis and redoubt, and well mounted with nine pieces of artillery. My men pushed up to the walls with great spirit, inflicting great loss on the enemy. Our loss small. About nightfall to the force of the enemy already in the fort three regiments were added, as re-enforcements, by one of the many roads which my forces were not numerous enough to guard. This made the enemy about five regiments strong. But while we lay on our arms, intending to renew the attack this morning, the enemy fled, probably by the same road the re-enforcements entered, and I am now master of their works. I am now pursuing with all my force.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. W. LORING,
Major-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF SOUTH-WESTERN VIRGINIA,
Fayette Court-House, W. Va., September 11, 1862.

To the Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH,
Secretary of War.

SIR: General Jenkins captured Buckhannon, Upshur Court-House, General Kelley’s main depot, with 5,000 stand of arms and immense stores, all of which were destroyed. He took the commanding officer and 30 prisoners. The next day he captured Weston; the next day he took Glenville; the next day he captured Colonel Rathbone and his regiment at Roane Court-House; the next day he drove a force of the enemy from Ravenswood, and the next day crossed into Ohio, marching 20 miles in that State. He was, at last accounts, on the Kanawha.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. W. LORING,
Major-General, Commanding.

CHARLESTON, KANAWHA CO., W. VA., September 13, 1862.

To the Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH,
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.

After incessant skirmishing from Gauley down, we took this place at 3 p.m. The enemy (six regiments strong) made stout resistance, burning their stores and part of this town in their retreat. Our loss slight; the enemy’s heavy. He is in full retreat; Jenkins in his rear.

W. W. LORING,
Major-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA,
Charleston, W. Va., September 14, 1862.

To the Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH,
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.

SIR: I reached here yesterday afternoon, capturing the town after a stout resistance from the enemy, in which their loss was heavy, ours very slight. The rapidity of our advance saved the city from flames. We had marched in exactly one week from Giles Court-House to this place, fighting for more than half a day at Fayette Court-House, and again, on the next morning, at Cotton Hill and Gauley, and skirmishing all the way to this place. In these rapid victories over a numerous enemy, six regiments strong, all furnished with artillery and cavalry, besides inflicting a great loss in men, we have captured immense amounts of wagons and horses, inventories of which we are now taking, and which will doubtless amount to at least $1,000,000. In the rapidity of our movements we have left the greater part of our train in rear, which has caused us to pause at this place. The enemy, fresher than we, and within 50 miles of the Ohio, have so much the advance that it is useless to pursue him farther. Roads from Guyandotte, Point Pleasant, and Ravenswood, on the Ohio River, converge at this place, so that if I move forward on any of these roads the enemy could use the other to get in my rear. Here, then, I will pause until our supply train reaches us—perhaps until I hear from you. If I advance toward the valley of Virginia, as you instructed me in a former letter, I shall have all these roads in my rear and between my column and trains, besides the difficult ranges of mountains running across my course, and with very bad roads over them. This valley, however, I can hold with its magnificent crop of growing corn and its salt The salt-works prove uninjured, preserved by our activity from fire, and only lack labor to supply the whole Confederacy. The negroes, by whom they were formerly worked, have been carried off by the enemy. I think that many recruits will be added to my command here if I hold the country long enough, while a rapid march through the valley of the Kanawha would only expose it to fresh invasions from the enemy.

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. W. LORING,
Major-General, Commanding.

Respectfully submitted to the President. If General Floyd’s command be turned over to the Confederate States Government and be filled up to a full brigade, it might hold the valley of the Kanawha. General Loring could then operate northwardly. I will prepare and submit a letter of instructions to him.

G. W. R.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN VIRGINIA,
Charleston, W. Va., September 15, 1862.

To the Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH,
Secretary of War.

SIR: The reception and welcome which the army received in this valley were so cordial that I deemed it politic to issue a proclamation of the temperate character of that which I inclose. I trust that it will meet with the approbation of the Government, as it does of all the citizens of the county, especially our firm and discreet friends.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. W. LORING,
Major-General, Commanding.

The army of the Confederate States has come among you to expel the enemy, to rescue the people from the despotism of the counterfeit State government imposed on you by Northern bayonets, and to restore the country once more to its natural allegiance to the State. We fight for peace and the possession of our own territory. We do not intend to punish those who remain at home as quiet citizens in obedience to the laws of the land, and to all such, clemency and amnesty are declared; but those who persist in adhering to the cause of the public enemy and the pretended State government he has erected at Wheeling will be dealt with as their obstinate treachery deserves.

When the liberal policy of the Confederate Government shall be introduced and made known to the people, who have so long experienced the wanton misrule of the invader, the commanding general expects the people heartily to sustain it, not only as a duty but as a deliverance from their task-masters and usurpers. Indeed, he already recognizes in the cordial welcome which the people everywhere give to the army a happy indication of their attachment to their true and lawful Government.

Until the proper authorities shall order otherwise, and in the absence of municipal law and its customary ministers, martial law will be administered by the army and provost-marshals. Private rights and property will be respected, violence will be repressed and order promoted, and all the private property used by the army will be paid for.

The commanding general appeals to all good citizens to aid him in these objects, and to all able-bodied men to join his army to defend the sanctities of religion and virtue, home, territory, honor, and law, which are invaded and violated by all unscrupulous enemy, whom an indignant and united people are now about to chastise on his own soil.

The Government expects an immediate and enthusiastic response to this call. Your country has been reclaimed for you from the enemy by soldiers, many of whom are from distant parts of the State and the Confederacy, and you will prove unworthy to possess so beautiful and fruitful a land if you do not now rise to retain and defend it. The oaths which the invader imposed upon you are void. They are immoral attempts to restrain you from your duty to your State and Government. They do not exempt you from the obligation to support your Government and to serve in the army, and if such persons are taken as prisoners of war the Confederate Government guarantees to them the humane treatment of the usages of war.

By command of

MAJ. GEN. LORING.

H. FITZHUGH,
Chief of Staff.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF WESTERN VIRGINIA,
Charleston, W. Va., September 14, 1862.

The commanding general congratulates the army on the brilliant march from the southwest to this place, in one week, and on its successive victories over the enemy at Fayette Court-House, Cotton Hill, and Charleston. It will be memorable in history that, overcoming the mountains and the enemy in one week, you have established the laws and carried the flag of the country to the outer borders of the Confederacy. Instances of gallantry and patriotic devotion are too numerous to be specially designated at this time; but to brigade commanders and their 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

MAJ. GEN. LORING.

H. FITZHUGH,
Chief of Staff.

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

To General S. COOPER,
Adjutant and Inspector General.

GENERAL: I have the honor to inform you that about the 22d ultimo I formed the plan of invading Trans-Alleghany Virginia, and preliminary to my own movement sent General Jenkins with my disposable cavalry, about 550 in number, with directions to sweep around to the northwest, destroying the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in his course, if possible, and to make his appearance about the 8th instant on the rear of the enemy in the Kanawha Valley. This plan, with the exception of the destruction of the railroad, for achieving which the time proposed was too brief, that brilliant and enterprising general executed with such success that in his march of 500 miles, accomplished in the time required and mostly within the lines of the enemy, he captured and paroled near 300 prisoners of war; killed, wounded, and dispersed about 1,000 of the enemy; reclaimed to the Government about 40,000 square miles, then in the possession of the enemy, destroying many garrisons of home guards and the records of the Wheeling and Federal Governments in many counties, and, after arming his command completely with captured arms, destroyed at least 5,000 stand of small-arms, one piece of cannon, and immense stores, which he was unable to bring away. Crossing the Ohio River twice and prosecuting at least 20 miles of his march through the State of Ohio, he exhibited, as he did elsewhere in his march, a policy of such clemency as won us many friends, and tended greatly to mitigate the ferocity which had characterized the war in this section. His timely arrival in the enemy’s rear effectually weakened the obstinacy of his stand and facilitated my march with the main column into the country. The whole of General Jenkins’ march was too full of incident and adventure and of successes, repeated daily, to be made the subject of mere special remark; but his conduct and that of his officers and men has received my unqualified approbation, and deserves the notice and thanks of the Government.

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 [George 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 of 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 soldiers of the command, should be noticed and commended, who swam the river in the face of some danger from the retreating enemy and extinguished the fire which was rapidly consuming the enemy’s ferry-boats.

I immediately caused General Echols’ brigade, together with the Twenty-second and Thirty-sixth Virginia Regiments, to be thrown across the river, and with his and the brigades of General Williams and Colonel Wharton, on the other side, I continued the pursuit of the enemy, with occasional skirmishing, to the vicinity of Charleston, which I reached on the afternoon of the 13th instant, the route of retreat being marked with burned and abandoned property. At Charleston the enemy again offered a most determined resistance until the brigades of General Williams and Colonel Wharton, reaching a commanding position on the opposite bank of the river, poured a destructive artillery fire into his right, while Colonel McCausland, then in command of the First Brigade, on account of the sickness of General Echols, covered and assisted by Chapman’s battery, placed on a commanding hill on the right, and which kept up a destructive fire on the enemy, pushed into the burning town and drove the enemy below the Elk River. The enemy destroyed the suspension bridge across the Elk [River] behind him, and, planting batteries upon the opposite shore, held the position until nightfall, when he again resumed his flight, which he has since rapidly continued, by the way of Jackson Court-House and Ravenswood, into the State of Ohio, followed, however, by enough of my disposable cavalry to harass his retreat and capture much valuable property. The march of near 150 miles and the detailing of forces to guard captured stores in the rear caused such abatement and exhaustion of my command as compelled me to halt at Charleston. This place, too, being the point of departure of many lateral roads, in any event is necessary to be held.

In the various engagements and skirmishes with the enemy up to this time, my loss in killed and wounded is about 80 men, while that of the enemy, from reliable information, cannot be less than 1,000 men, in killed, wounded, and prisoners. At least $1,000,000 worth of stores were captured, including many Federal flags, two pieces of artillery, besides several millions of dollars’ worth of stores which were destroyed by the enemy in his flight.

To Generals Williams and Echols and to Colonels Wharton and McCausland, commanding brigades, I take pleasure in according the praise which they deserve for their efficient services and cordial execution of my commands.

To each of the several officers commanding regiments, battalions, and batteries, great credit is due for their gallantry and promptness. Major King, chief of artillery; Captain [Lawrence S.] Marye, of the ordnance; Captains Poor and [John M.] Robinson of the engineers, for services in their respective spheres, and Captain [R.] Laidley of the Twenty-second Virginia Regiment, wounded while gallantly fighting at Fayettville, and Lieutenant [T. G.] Jarrell, of the Thirty-sixth Virginia Regiment, for coolness and courage evinced at Gauley ; Captain [H. T.] Stanton, adjutant-general of General Williams, for entering the town of Charleston and taking down the garrison flag, and Captain [R. H.] Catlett and Mr. McFarland, of General Echols’ staff; Lieut. Henry Robinson, artillery, and Dr. Hunter, chief medical director of my command, for his care of the sick and his energy in securing captured medical stores; Captains [T. H.] Stamps, [G. G.] Otey, [William M.] Lowry, and [G. B.] Chapman, and Lieutenant [David N.] Walker, of the artillery, all deserve especial mention. Colonel Fitzhugh, chief of staff; Captain [W. B.] Myers, of the adjutant-general’s department, and Colonel Thorburn, inspector-general and chief of ordnance, and Captains [John D.] Myrick and [C. L.] Mathews, my aides-de-camp, merit the warmest approbation for their activity and services on the march and in the field; and to the soldiers of the army too much praise cannot be given for their uncomplaining endurance of the fatigues of the march, and their gallant bearing in the dangers of the fight. It will be a source of great pleasure to me to mention hereafter acts of individual gallantry and usefulness of officers and men (many of which occurred) as they are brought to my notice. I have the honor to inclose herein the reports of commanders of brigades and others, in which the meritorious conduct of commanders of regiments, battalions, and others is mentioned.

The precise number of my killed and wounded will appear from the valuable report of Dr. Hunter, my chief medical director.

The rapidity of the pursuit of the enemy preserved the salt works and most of the town of Charleston from the flames, and rescued many worthy citizens from confinement, among the number Mr. Price, of Greenbrier County.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. W. LORING,
Major-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN VIRGINIA,
Charleston, W. Va., September 22, 1862.

To the Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH,
Secretary of War.

SIR: I have the honor to present, through Captain McFarland, of my staff, the flags captured in our recent conflicts at Fayetteville, Gauley, and Charleston. In the rapidity of our march, the collection of trophies has been imperfectly made, and many of this and other kinds which fell into our hands have been lost and destroyed.

The recent information derived from Northern sources confesses a demoralization and destruction of the invading army of the Kanawha Valley greater than I have hitherto represented.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. W. LORING,
Major-General, Commanding.