Thus for an hour a rapid fire had been kept up, but without eliciting any reply from the fort, or without any flag having been shown. Thirty minutes later, their batteries replied, having been mostly aimed at the Cumberland, and the fight continued for half an hour, without intermission, when a white flag was shown from the large fort. Again the order to cease firing was given, the sailors flew to the rigging, and from ship to ship rang the cheers of victory. General Butler sent Lieutenant Crosby ashore to inquire the meaning of the white flag. He soon returned, bringing Mr. Weigel, with a communication from Commodore Barron, offering to surrender, with all the arms and ammunition, the officers to go out with side arms, and the men to retire without arms. General Butler demanded a full capitulation as prisoners of war, which was subsequently complied with.
In three-quarters of an hour Lieutenant Crosby returned with Commodore Barron, Major Andrews and Colonel Martin. With these officers General Butler went aboard the flag-ship Minnesota, to make the agreement with Commodore Stringham, on the part of the navy. The articles were signed, and the forts surrendered and occupied by the Union forces. While the terms were under consideration, the Adelaide and Harriet Lane both got aground, and occasioned some fear lest the enemy, taking advantage of this circumstance, might renew the contest. But happily their fears were not realized. In reaching the Minnesota, Commodore Barron was obliged to pass under the guns of the Wabash, the vessel which he had himself commanded a few months before, and which he had just been endeavoring to destroy from his batteries.
The result of this expedition was the capture of seven hundred and fifteen men, including the officers, one thousand stand of arms, seventy-five kegs of powder, five stand of colors, thirty-one pieces of cannon, including a ten-inch columbiad, a brig loaded with cotton, a sloop loaded with provisions and stores, two light-boats, one hundred and fifty bags of coffee and smaller stores.
The prisoners were transferred to the Minnesota, and taken to New York. Their acknowledged loss was forty-nine killed and fifty-one wounded. On the Federal side, not a single life was lost, and only two or three wounded.
WESTERN VIRGINIA.
A series of active events in Western Virginia now claim our attention.
Governor Wise, on hearing of the death of General Garnett, and the defeat and dispersion of his army, commenced a retreat up the Kanawha, cautiously followed by General Cox. He intended to make a stand at Gauley’s Bridge, at the junction of Gauley and Kanawha rivers, and had erected defences for that purpose; but in consequence of the demoralization and desertion of his men, and learning that General Rosecranz had dispatched a large force to intercept him, he fled without fighting, on the 28th of July, destroying the bridge to cut off his pursuers. He left behind him a thousand muskets, and a quantity of powder, which were seized by General Cox. Early in the month of August, General Floyd was reinforced by fresh troops from the eastern section of the State, while Jackson was also advancing with a new army to attack the position of Rosecranz at the Cheat Mountain Pass, and General Loring, another rebel commander, was marching towards Huttonsville to act in conjunction with Jackson’s forces.
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.