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and often engaged in little skirmishes.
Finally, on the 26th,
a spirited affair occurred near
Frankfort, on the road between
Cumberland and
Romney, in which thirteen picked men of the regiment, mounted on the thirteen impressed horses, were engaged.
They were sent on a scout, led by
Corporal D. B. Hay, one of their number.
They boldly attacked forty-one mounted insurgents, killing eight of them, chasing the remainder two miles, and capturing seventeen of their horses.
The leader of the scouts was severely wounded, but was saved.
On their way back, they were attacked by seventy-five mounted men of the command of the afterward famous
Ashby, near the mouth of
Patterson's Creek.
They fell back across a portion of the stream to
Kelley's Island, at the mouth of the creek, where; they had a terrible hand-to-hand fight with their assailants, that ceased only with the daylight.
It ended at nightfall, with a loss to the Zouaves of only one man killed.
The remainder made their way back to camp in the darkness.
1 Their bravery elicited the highest praise of both
Patterson and
McClellan.
The former, in general orders,
2 commended their example to his troops; and the latter thanked them for their noble services, and said to
Colonel Wallace:
--“I more than ever regret that you are not under my command.
I have urged
General Scott to send up the
Pennsylvania regiments.
I begin to doubt whether the Eleventh Indiana needs re-enforcements.”
3
On the 8th of July, by order of General Patterson, Wallace's regiment broke camp at Cumberland, and joined the forces under their chief at Martinsburg; and they were engaged on duty in that vicinity until after the battle of Bull's Run,
notwithstanding the term of their three months enlistment had expired.
For his eminent services in this.
three months campaign,
Wallace was rewarded with the commission of a brigadier.
Whilst the Baltimore and Ohio Railway--the great line of communication with the West--was thus held by the National troops, attempts were made by the insurgents to occupy the country in Western Virginia south of it. We have observed that Colonel Porterfield had notified the authorities at Richmond that a large force must be immediately sent into that region, or it would be lost to the “Confederacy.”
4 A plan of campaign in that direction was immediately formed and put in execution.
Porterfield was succeeded in command in Northwestern Virginia by General Robert S. Garnett, a meritorious officer, who served on the staff of General Taylor, in Mexico, and was breveted a major for gallantry in the battle of Buena Vista.
He made his Headquarters at Beverly, in Randolph County, a pleasant village on a plain, traversed by Tygart's Valley River.
It was an important point in operations to prevent McClellan pushing through the gaps of the mountain ranges into the Shenandoah Valley.
Garnett proceeded at once to fortify places on the roads leading from Beverly through these mountain passes.
