Knocking on the Front Door of Rich Mountain with the 4th Ohio

    Following the brief engagement near Carrick's Ford in western Virginia, Corporal Levi Graybill of the 4th Ohio had a chance to see the first general killed in the Civil War, Brigadier General Robert Selden Garnett of the Confederate army. 

    "He looked like a great man and not a bad one," Graybill confessed. "He was a man of medium size, had a high and intellectual forehead, a brow pensive but not gloomy, a mouth of inflexible decision, a face pale but serene, and he had every appearance of being a man of great thought. He was placed in a coffin and sent to Grafton to be shipped to his home in Richmond. No one could look on him as he lay in his coffin dressed in his uniform looking as though he was enjoying the sweet slumbers of life without feeling sorry for him. Yet all must acknowledge that his death has rid our country of one of its most powerful enemies." 

    A West Point graduate of the class of 1841, Garnett had been a brigadier general for scarce a month in the Provisional Army before meeting his demise. The native Virginian, twice brevetted for gallantry during the Mexican War, had just evacuated his forts on Rich Mountain and Laurel Hill when the Federal pursuit caught up with his column as Corporal Graybill explains in the following letter. Graybill's account of Rich Mountain first saw publication in the August 1, 1861 edition of the Wooster Republican. 

Most of the early infantry regiments from Ohio marched to the front in western Virginia proudly wearing O.V.M. belt buckles; many of the 90-day regiments that fought during the summer 1861 campaigns were called Ohio Volunteer Militia, not volunteer infantry as was usually associated with regiments that mustered in for three years service. Over time, O.V.M. disappeared from the lexicon and Ohio Volunteer Infantry took its place as the preferred designation for Ohio's volunteer regiments. The O.V.M. belt buckles likewise disappeared over time, replaced by the ubiquitous U.S. belt plate. 


Camp Beverly, Randolph Co., Virginia

July 18, 1861

 

          I have deferred writing for so long that it has become a painful task. During the past few weeks, the monotony of camp life has passed away and we have been engaged in the realities of military life and so steadily had we been employed in moving from place to place and making preparations for engagements with the Rebels that it was impossible to avail ourselves of time enough to pen a note to a friend. But now the enemy in this section of Virginia has been completely routed; hardly a vestige of them left and we are now lying inactive in camp and in all probability will remain here a few weeks. I intrude this brief account of the battle at Rich Mountain and the great run from Laurel Hill to Cheat River.

          We arrived at Roaring Creek near Rich Mountain on the afternoon of the 9th instant. Next day most of the troops in camp were ordered out to stand as guard while the General and his staff surveyed the country surrounding the Rebel fort for the purpose of selecting a place to plant our batteries where they would have command of the Rebel fort. The enemy fired grapeshot at us five or six times, killing one man and wounding another in the 9th Ohio regiment. Some of their regiment returned fire with muskets killing four or five of the enemy and wounding others. They also two prisoners, one of whom was mortally wounded and died shortly afterwards. In the evening, we were sent back to our quarters with orders to be ready early in the morning to cut a way through the woods to the top of the hill, a distance of two miles, for the purpose of taking the cannons through and planting them on a hill overlooking the enemy’s camp.

          During the night, General Rosecrans with three Indiana regiments and one Ohio (19th) left camp to go around the enemy’s camp and get to the opposite side and cut them off if they attempted to retreat when attacked in front. He landed safely on the opposite side of the fort at 12 a.m. unknown to the enemy. After resting his men, he went to work to inform himself as to the true position of the enemy and discovered that, although the fort was very well fortified in front, they had no fortification in the rear and that he could drive them out of one part of the fort into the other with very little loss to himself. He opened fire on them to their great surprise and after a spirited contest of about three hours succeeded in driving them into the main fort.

Levi Graybill enlisted as a corporal in Co. E of the 4th Ohio Militia in the heady days of April 1861, his first campaign being in the mountains of western Virginia. He chose to re-enlist for three years and saw much hard service with the 4th Ohio, fighting in the Shenandoah Valley, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg before receiving a medical discharge in September 1863. He then was commissioned as a captain in Co. E of the 22nd U.S. Colored Troops and served with that regiment through the rest of the war. After the conclusion of the conflict, Graybill moved to California where he died in Palo Alto in 1908. 


          While Rosecrans was playing away in the enemy’s rear, General McClellan was engaged in cutting a road through the woods on the enemy’s front having about ten men out of each company of the remaining regiments cutting and the others standing by formed in line of battle to be ready if the enemy should make an attack on them and try to drive them away. They were very quiet in the main fort until about 5 p.m. when they fired four or five guns which cut down a few small trees close by but injured no one. The road was completed late in the evening and at 10 p.m. we were sent to our quarters through rain and mud for it had been raining nearly all the forenoon with orders to be ready at 5 o’clock Friday morning.

          At the appointed time, we were in line ready to be led on to the contest but imagine our surprise on hearing that the enemy had fled during the night, leaving everything behind but their muskets and what little private property they had. On hearing of the success of General Rosecrans and the flight of the enemy, the cheers were deafening throughout the camp for some minutes. The number of secessionists killed, wounded, and taken prisoners was over 300, the killed alone being 240. Our loss in killed was not over 13. The Rebels left all their cannons- five or six pieces, all their wagons, horses, mules, tents, ammunition, clothing, provisions, and they left themselves!

          On hearing of the evacuation of the fort, we marched direct for Beverly. On arriving at that place, we heard that a regiment of Virginians had arrived there the night before to go and reinforce the fort and on hearing the cannonading at the fort, they turned and went to Huttonville where they have since been routed, fleeing when they heard that General McClellan was approaching the place.

          Shortly after arriving at Beverly, a messenger arrived from General Morris of the government forces at Camp Bealington near Laurel Hill stating that General Garnett who had command of the Rebel forces at Camp Garnett at Laurel Hill had evacuated the fort and that he, Morris, was in pursuit of the game. He was out of provisions for his men and wanted supplies sent to him. McClellan dispatched 26 men with 27 head of cattle to his relief. Shortly before we left, 600 secessionists who escaped from the fort at Rich Mountain were taken prisoners about one mile from Beverly.

Brigadier General Robert Selden Garnett
Killed in action July 13, 1861

          At 10 o’clock we started with the cattle and traveled 19 miles that day. During the afternoon we heard them cannonading and made every effort to overtake them but the cattle were unable to go any further so we had to stop and give them a rest. Sunday morning, we were off before daylight and in a few hours reached the battlefield. They kept shooting at each other for about four miles but the principal part was on William Carrick’s farm on Shafer’s Fork of Cheat River. It was at this place that General Garnett was shot; he was riding in the wagon containing the safe. He was so closely pressed that it was impossible to get all his men away without fighting. He jumped out of the wagon in which he had been riding and called on his men to rally. The Georgians were the first to come to his support but all in vain; the brave man died at the head of his forces, receiving two balls in the back, one passing through and the other lodging in his heart. As he fell, he waved his hands. The last words he uttered were “Hurrah for Jeff Davis!”

          I saw him shortly after his death; he looked like a great man and not a bad one. He was a man of medium size, had a high and intellectual forehead, a brow pensive but not gloomy, a mouth of inflexible decision, a face pale but serene, and he had every appearance of being a man of great thought. He was placed in a coffin and sent to Grafton to be shipped to his home in Richmond. No one could look on him as he lay in his coffin dressed in his uniform looking as though he was enjoying the sweet slumbers of life without feeling sorry for him. Yet all must acknowledge that his death has rid our country of one of its most powerful enemies.

          The killed all along the route were 40-50 of the enemy and three of our men while 50 of the enemy were taken prisoners, one cannon seized, a very large lot of tents, a large number of horses and wagons, one wagon load of ammunition. The safe was reported to have contained $72,000 in specie and $70,000 in Virginia bonds.

          When the enemy rallied at Shafer’s fork of the Cheat River, the 7th Indiana formed a line of battle on the river. After resting his men, General Morris started for his camp at Bealington again where he arrived at 9 p.m. Monday evening having marched his men 32 miles that day with nothing to eat but a small piece of beef which they roasted by putting it on a stick and roasting it over the fire. Many of them had not a bit of bread or anything of the kind from the time they left their camp trill their return four days later. They had to eat the beef without salt and so weak did they become that hundreds of them were unable to reach camp due to starvation and fatigue. Teams were running all that night and Monday bringing in those who were unable to walk.

 

Source:

Letter from Corporal Levi S. Graybill, Co. E, 4th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Wooster Republican (Ohio), August 1, 1861, pg. 3


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