SURPRISE AT CROSS LANES.
On the morning of the 26th of August, the Seventh Ohio regiment, Colonel Tyler, attached to General Cox’s brigade, had just encamped at a position in the mountains called Cross Lanes, near Summersville, about twenty-four miles from Gauley Bridge, and eighteen from Twenty-mile Creek, where the main body of General Cox’s forces were.
While at breakfast they were surrounded and attacked in front and on both flanks simultaneously, by a rebel force of three thousand infantry, four hundred cavalry, and ten guns. Colonel Tyler’s men were immediately formed for battle, and fought bravely, though in an almost hopeless position. The enemy proving too powerful, the Colonel dispatched an orderly to the baggage train, which was coming up, but three miles distant, and turned it back towards General Cox’s camp, where it arrived in safety. The regiment met the advancing foe with desperate valor, and finally succeeded in cutting their way through the superior force by whom they were encompassed, Lieutenant-Colonel Creighton capturing the enemy’s colors and two prisoners in their progress. The ranks were much broken, and companies B, C and I suffered severely. The line was soon formed again, and prepared for a renewal of the attack, but they were permitted to make good their retreat without further molestation. Captains Dyer, Shurtleff and Sterling, Adjutant De Forrest, Lieutenant Narrent, and Sergeant-Major King were killed. The total loss is reported at fifteen killed, forty wounded, and thirty prisoners. The loss of the enemy is not known, but could not have been less.