One of the vessels, the Robin Hood, with upright masts, stood erect, in water too shallow to submerge her. As evening drew near she was set on fire, and in a little time the evening sky was lighted up with the pyrotechnic display, while the inhabitants of Charleston, the garrison of Fort Moultrie, and the surroundings, were compelled to look on and see the temporary completion of the blockade they had so long derided and defied.
This event provoked loud and vindictive complaints and assaults in France and England, and the measure was denounced as an outrage on civilization, and a sufficient warrant for interference in the war. But an examination of the historical precedents afforded by British practice closed the mouths of the declaimers in Parliament as well as through the press, and once more American practice was permitted to pass, justified by the verdict of opinion as well as of illustrious example.
BATTLE OF CAMP ALLEGHANY, W. VIRGINIA.
December 13, 1861.
On Thursday morning, December 12th, Brigadier-General R. H. Milroy started from his headquarters on Cheat Mountain Summit, with fifteen hundred men, with the design of attacking a rebel camp on the Alleghany mountains, twenty-five miles distant. The column started at eight o’clock, and after a fatiguing day’s march arrived, at eight P. M., at the old Camp Bartow, on the Greenbrier river, the scene of General Reynolds’ rencontre on the 3d of October previous. Here the troops rested until eleven P. M., when the General divided his force into two columns, with the intention of reaching the enemy’s camp on the summit of the mountain, about eight and a half miles distant, from two opposite points, at four o’clock, A. M., of the 13th.
The first division, consisting of detachments from the Ninth Indiana, Colonel Moody, and Second Virginia, Major Owens, about one thousand strong, took up its march on the old Greenbank road to attack the enemy on the left.
The second division consisted of detachments from the Thirteenth Indiana, Twenty-fifth and Thirty-second Ohio, and Bracken Cavalry, under Major Dobbs, Colonel J. A. Jones, Captain Hamilton and Captain Bracken. Brigadier-General Reynolds and his staff conducted this division, numerically about the same as the first division. This column took the Staunton pike, and marched cautiously until they came in sight of the enemy’s camp, where, after throwing out more skirmishers, the division left the road and commenced to ascend the mountain to the enemy’s right. After driving in some of the hostile pickets they reached the summit in good order. The enemy were fully prepared to receive them. The fight on the enemy’s right commenced about twenty minutes after daylight.
Lieutenant McDonald, of General Reynolds’ staff, with one company of the Thirteenth Indiana, formed the line of battle, placing the Twenty-fifth Ohio on his left, part of the Thirteenth Indiana on their left, and part of the Thirty-second Ohio on their left. The enemy immediately advanced to attack the Federal troops, but after a few rounds retreated in great confusion, leaving their dead and wounded. Colonel Moody’s division not appearing to attack the enemy on the left, the rebels seeing the inferior force opposed to them, were again encouraged to advance toward their assailants, which they did with a far superior force, pouring in their fire with vigor. Some of the Federals now commenced falling to the rear, all along the line; but Captains Charlesworth and Crowe, of the Twenty-fifth Ohio, Lieutenant McDonald, Captains Myers and Newland, of the Thirteenth Indiana, and Hamilton, of the Thirty-second Ohio, rallied them, and brought them into line in a few moments. The enemy again fell back and attempted to turn their right flank, but was immediately met and repulsed. The fortunes of the day appeared to alternate between the respective armies for three hours, the Federals holding out bravely against the superior numbers of the enemy, who were enabled to concentrate their entire army of two thousand men and four or five pieces of artillery against this comparatively small force.
Colonel Moody’s force not having then been heard from, Colonel Jones, who had charge of the division now in action, after exhausting his ammunition, withdrew his men from the field.
Almost at this juncture, Colonel Moody’s command, which had been detained by obstructions placed in the road over which they were compelled to pass, arrived, and attacked the enemy vigorously on his left, and in turn maintained an obstinate contest, unaided, against the entire rebel command, which they did with much courage and skill, until three o’clock, P. M., when they too were compelled to retire before the superior force of their opponents.