T. A. Morris to Benjamin F. Kelley, June 2, 1861
Col. B. F. KELLEY, Commanding First Regiment Virginia Volunteers :
CoLONEL: With six companies of your regiment, nine companies of Colonel Milroy’s Ninth Indiana, and six companies of Colonel Irvine’s Sixteenth Ohio, you will proceed this morning to a point about six miles eastward from this place on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and march by the shortest and most practicable route towards Philippi. You must regulate your march according to your own discretion, and your bivouac or rest at night in such manner that you are sure of coming before the town of Philippi as near 4 o’clock to-morrow morning as possible. Should you this evening receive certain information that the rebels have retreated eastward from Philippi you will make the resting time of your troops as short as possible, in order to follow them up with all the speed the strength of your troops will allow. In such case you will as early as possible inform Colonel Dumont on the other bank of the river, and direct his co-operation with you in the pursuit, which, if in your discretion you are in sufficient force, you will continue until they are beyond Beverly, and you will also apprise these headquarters, in order that supplies may be forwarded to you.
By command of Brig. Gen. T. A. Morris:
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.
This column (the left of the attack) moved by railroad train on the 2d
at 9 o'clock a. m. towards, and was generally understood to be an advance
After leaving the cars the distance to Philippi was about twenty-five
miles, on a road but little traveled. The instructions required a rapid march during the day and early part of the night to a point from which,
after a sufficient rest, Philippi could be certainly reached at 4 o'clock