Porterfield given command.
Colonel Geo. A. Porterfield, from the Virginia Military Institute was sent by Governor Letcher to take command of all State troops at Grafton. On Friday, the 31st day of May, Dr. Price makes this entry: ‘I met Colonel Porterfield, and was invited to take tea with him at his quarters, and I found him a very intelligent and affable gentleman.’ * * ‘Colonel Porterfield spoke rather despondently of the unprepared condition of Virginia to meet invasion successfully. He regretted very much the lack of order, preparation and discipline among the troops now at the front, but he hoped all might come right after while.’ 0n the 30th day of May, Mr. Wilson makes this entry: ‘Our head officer is a tall, slender young man, with red, curly hair, no whiskers, dark eyes, and good looking, especially his face. He was in company with another officer, whose uniform is a blue coat, blue pants, stick cap. His complexion fair, light hair and eyes, rather heavy beard.’Such is the personal description of Colonel Porterfield by two of the writers of the diaries at that time.
From Staunton, Va., to Grafton, over the turnpike roads, it is a distance of 143 miles. The first 112 miles is over the ‘Staunton and Parkersburg pike,’ when you reach Beverley, that was the county seat of Randolph county. There you take Philippi pike, and you reach Philippi, the county seat of Barbour county, at a distance of thirty-one miles, and from Philippi to [288] Grafton, over the Fitterman pike it is eighteen miles to Grafton. All of these roads were made by the State of Virginia prior to the year of 1861, under what was known as the ‘internal improvement system of Virginia,’ and were broad, well-graded turnpikes.
The State troops that were included in Governor Letcher's order to rendezvous at Grafton were known as the ‘Provisional Army,’ and this title had been acquired by the fact that Virginia, through her convention, had adopted conditionally the ‘Provisional Constitution’ of the seceded States. The following is a list of the companies and their captains that were ordered to Grafton, and were in the Philippi route or retreat:
One company of cavalry from Greenbrier county, under Capt. Robert Moorman.
Two companies from Pocahontas county—one company of cavalry, under Capt. Andrew McNeil, and one company of infantry, under Capt. Daniel Stofer.
One company of cavalry from Bath county, under Capt. Arch Richards.
One company of cavalry from Rockbridge county, Capt. John Rice McNutt.
One company of cavalry from Augusta county, under Capt Frank Sterrett.
One company of infantry, under Capt. Felix Hull, from Highland county.
Two companies of infantry from Pendleton county—one under Captain Anderson and the other under Captain Moorman:
Two companies from Barbour county—one under Captain Reger and the other under a Captain Strums.
One company from Upshur county, under Captain Higginbotham.
And all other volunteer forces as far west as the city of Wheeling were required to report at Grafton, but the diaries show that probably not more than half of the companies that have been enumerated did reach Grafton. The record shows that a few hundred of Colonel Porterfield's forces did reach Grafton from the 25th to the 28th days of May, when a report came from Ohio of this big army of McClellan's coming on the [289] Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, when Colonel Porterfield ordered a retreat to Philippi. This retreat was made in good order.
