Robert C. Schenck to George B. McClellan, May 14, 1862

Thave had the honor in my dispatehes, heretofore transmitted through you, to inform the general commanding of my march with my brigade from Franklin to McDowell to the relief of Brigadier-General Milroy, who, with his force, fallen back to and concentrated at the last-named place, was threatened with attack by the combined armies of the rebel Generals Jackson and Johnson. By leaving my baggage train under a guard in my last camp, on the road 14 miles from McDowell, I was able to push forward so as to make the whole distance (34 miles) in twentythree hours. I added, however, but little numerical strength to the army I was sent to relieve. My brigade, consisting of but three regiments, and with several companies then on detached and other duty, brought into the field an aggregate of only 1,300 infantry, besides De Beck’s battery, of the First Ohio Artillery, and about 250 of the First Battalion of Connecticut Cavalry. With this help I reached General Milroy at 10 a. m. on the 8thinstant. I was, to use his own expression, “just in time.” I found his regiments of infantry partly in line of battle in the plain at McDowell, covering some of the various approaches from the mountain, and partly disposed as skirmishers on the heights in front, and his batteries in position, expecting momentarily that the enemy would attempt to descend into the valley to attack him under cover of artillery that might be brought forward to command the place from different points.

A little observation served to show at once that McDowell, as a defensive position, was entirely untenable, and especially against the largely outnumbering force that was ascertained to be advancing ; and if it had been otherwise there was no choice left on account of an entire destitution of forage. I determined, therefore, to obey, with as little delay as possible, your orders to fall back with the force of our two brigades to this place. Such a movement, however, could not with any safety or propriety be commenced before night, nor did it seem advisable to undertake it without first ascertaining or feeling the actual strength of the rebel force before us, and also, perhaps, taking some step that would serve to check or disable him from his full power or disposition to pursue. This was effectually done by our attack of his position on the mountain in the afternoon, and in the night following I was enabled to withdraw our whole little army along the road through the narrow gorge, which afforded the only egress from the valley in which McDowell is situated, in the direction of Franklin. This withdrawal we effected without the loss of a man and without the loss or destruction of any article of public property, except of some stores, for which General Milroy was entirely without the means of transportation.

I submit herewith the reports of Brigadier-General Milroy and of

Infantry, of my brigade, giving an account of the affair with the rebel forces that day and of the parts severally taken in the fight by the different regiments engaged.

At 3 o’clock, General Milroy having reported to me that his scouts informed him of re-enforcements continually arriving to the support of the enemy, concealed among the woods on the mountain, and that they were evidently making preparations to get artillery in position for sweeping the valley, I consented to his request to be permitted to make a reconnaissance. The force detailed for this purpose consisted of portions of four regiments of infantry of his brigade—the Seventy-fifth, Twenty-fifth, and Thirty-second Ohio and the Third West Virginia— and the Eighty-second Ohio, of mine, the latter regiment gladly receiving the order to join in the enterprise, although the men were exhausted with the long march from which they had just arrived, with want of food, sleep, and rest. The infantry was supported in a degree also by a 6-pounder of Johnson’s battery, which General Milroy had succeeded in conveying to the top of one of the mountain ridges on his left. The movement resulted in a very sharp encounter with the rebels, of which details are given in the accompanying reports. To those details I refer. I will only add, by way of general summing up, that, adding to the 1,768 of Milroy’s brigade about 500 of the Highty-second Ohio, which was the number in the action, the entire force we had engaged was > 2,268. That these men were opposed to, I believe, not less than 5,000 of the enemy successively brought into action, besides their reserved force of some 8,000 in the rear; that the casualties on our part amounted in the aggregate to 28 killed, 80 severely wounded, 145 slightly wounded, and 3 missing, making a total of 256.t

* Colonel Cantwell’s report not found. +See revised statement, p. 462.

As the evening closed in, and it was ascertained that, from the unex: pected severity and protraction of the fight, the ammunition of some of the regiments was almost completely exhausted, I endeavored in person to get a supply of cartridges to the men, and had three wagon loads taken some distance up the Staunton road for that purpose, but the only way it could reach them up the steep mountain side was to be carried by hand or in haversacks. 1 ordered up the road also the Fifth Regiment West Virginia Infantry, Colonel Zeigler commanding, of my brigade, to the relief of the other troops, if needed, and they most promptly and actively moved to the field, but it was not necessary to bring them into the action. The troops that were engaged, after fighting with a coolness and order and bravery which it is impossible to excel, and after pressing back the enemy over the mountain crest and maintaining unflinchingly and under the most galling and constant fire their ground until darkness set in, were then withdrawn under the immediate order of Colonel McLean, of the Seventy-fifth Ohio, leaving, as I believe, not a prisoner behind, for the 3 men reported missing are supposed to be among the killed.

We took 4 prisoners of the enemy. His loss in killed is thought by all engaged to have much exceeded ours. From prisoners since taken I have ascertained that his killed on the field was admitted to be not less than 30 and his wounded very numerous.

Among the rebels wounded I learn was General Johnson hurself and at least one of his field officers. The colonel of a Virginia regiment is known to be among the slain.

Too much praise cannot be awarded to General Milroy himself; to Colonel McLean, of the Seventy-fifth Ohio; Colonel Cantwell, Kightysecond Ohio; Lieutenant-Colonel Richardson, commanding the Twentyfifth Ohio; Major Reily, Seventy-fifth Ohio; Lieutenant-Colonel Swinney, commanding Thirty-second Ohio; Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson, Third West Virginia Infantry, and the officers and men of their several commands for their steady gallantry and courage manifested throughout the whole affair. No veteran troops, I am sure, ever acquitted themselves with more ardor, and yet with such order and coolness, as they displayed in marching and fighting up that steep mountain side in the face of a hot and incessant fire.

From McDowell I fell back by easy marches on the 9th, 10th, and 11th to this place, the enemy cautiously pursuing.

On a commanding ridge of ground 13 miles from McDowell, at the intersection of the road from that place with the turnpike to Monterey, I stopped from 8 a. m. to 2 p. m. on the 9th, and made my dispositions. to receive and repulse the attack of the rebels, who appeared in our rear, but they declined the undertaking.

While awaiting the arrival of the general commanding with re-enforcements at this point on the 11th, 12th, and 13th, the rebel army having advanced to within 2 miles of our position, we were kept constantly engaged in watchful preparation for an expected assault. I had my batteries and the forces so disposed as to feel confident of repelling any attack; but we had no collision, except some skirmishing with my pickets and portions of the infantry advanced on the range of hills to my right as I confronted the enemy’s approach, and which resulted only in the loss of 2 men—1 of the Fifth West Virginia Regiment on the 11th, and 1 of the Third Regiment Potomac Home Brigade on the 12th—on our side, and 4 or 5 of the enemy killed by our shells.

The approaches were so guarded as to prevent the enemy from getCuar.” XXIV.) ENGAGEMENT NEAR M’DOWELL, VA.

ting his artillery into any commanding position, and in the night of the 13th he withdrew back along the turnpike road to the southward. I am,

respectfully, your obedient servant,