To Col. Barnett:
Two hundred rounds of solid shot and one hundred rounds of canister will be shipped to you from Columbus this evening. As soon as you receive it detach two pieces with an officer and complement of men with ammunition to go forward and report to Col. Steadman at the burned bridge on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad beyond Parkersburg.
G. B. McCLELLAN,
Major General.
Columbus, Ohio, May 28, 1861.
To Col. Barnett:
Obey implicitly every order from General McClellan. Telegraph me when you move a company. Keep me advised of all your movements. Clothing and supplies go by your Quartermaster.
H. B. CARRINGTON,
Adjutant General.
These telegrams kept the members of the Battery in a continual fever of excitement, which grew hotter every hour. In reply to Colonel Steadman’s second dispatch Colonel Barnett telegraphed him the substance of General McClellan’s dispatch, and informed him that the two companies would go forward the next day. Camp Putnam was greatly disturbed by the question as to which two of the six companies should constitute this detachment. All were eager to go, apparently saddened by the thought that this, their first, might be their last, and only chance to get an experimental knowledge of what war was. The military career of the four companies which stayed behind would terminate in an inglorious journey home, the war over and no laurels crowning their brows. Colonel Barnett selected Companies D, Captain Rice, and F, Captain Kenny, as the fortunate ones. They were ordered to be ready to embark early on the following day. The detachment was placed in command of Lieutenant-Colonel Sturges.
The ammunition arrived early next morning. Companies D and F, with their guns, horses, and equipments complete, were soon on board a special steamboat and left in high spirits, replying with great gusts to the parting cheers of their chopfallen comrades who remained. On reaching Parkersburg, May 29—11 p. m., about twelve miles down the river from Marietta, it was found that Colonel Steadman, to whom Lieutenant-Colonel Sturges had been ordered to report with the detachment, had advanced some distance beyond that place on the line of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, where his command was engaged in repairing bridges which the retreating enemy had destroyed. The artillery detachment pushed on promptly and joined him May 30—12 M. At last they were on the “sacred soil” of a seceded state, ready to send the echoes of their guns reverberating among the Virginia hills. The Fourteenth Ohio boys gave the artillerymen a rousing reception, greeting them with loud and oft-repeated cheers.
At this time Colonel George A. Porterfield was in command of the rebel forces in that part of Virginia, with his headquarters at Grafton. The loyal sentiment in Western Virginia was very strong. Those who favored secession were in a decided minority. It was deemed of the highest importance to the Union cause to occupy the territory as fast and as securely as possible, thus affording encouragement and protection to the loyal people and holding that section from being dragged into the vortex of rebellion, clearly against the will of the great majority of the people.