During the few days that the troops under General Morris lay at Belington there was constant skirmishing with the enemy. Day and night all were kept on the alert, and the whistle of bullets began to be a familiar sound. The guns of the Cleveland Artillery were advantageously posted and were brought into occasional use. The men were constantly at their posts. Now and then a shell or a solid shot would be sent over to the rebels, just to let them know that the “Yankees” were still there and wide awake. In an official report dated “Headquarters near Belington, Va., July 9, 1861,” General Morris says:
“The instructions of the commanding general will be carried out, although it is difficult to restrain our men from advancing. I hardly know in what terms to convey to you their enthusiasm. Their coolness under such fire as we have been subjected to (incessant since our arrival), is most creditable to them, and establishes beyond all question, if proof were needed, that they can be relied upon in any emergency. The regiments in advance are Milroy’s Ninth Indiana, Barnett’s Artillery, Steadman’s Fourteenth Ohio, and Dumont’s Seventh Indiana, all of which deserve special mention.”
On July 12th the rebels, having retreated from Belington and Laurel Hill during the day and night previous, General Morris moved in pursuit. The following is an extract from a report made by him dated “Carrick’s Ford, Va., July 14, 1861:
“I reported yesterday morning the progress of the forces of my command in pursuit of the enemy retreating from Laurel Hill. The pursuit was continued through the day in the same order as stated in my report of yesterday morning, viz.: Steadman’s Fourteenth Ohio in advance with two sections of Barnett’s artillery, next Dumont’s Seventh Indiana and Milroy’s Ninth Indiana. These regiments started in pursuit from our resting place near Leadsville at about 4 o’clock in the morning. The remainder of the troops were on the march by 5 o’clock a. m. A drizzling rain commenced about 6 o’clock, which by 9 became quite heavy. The enemy left the main turnpike and turned towards Cheat river, crossing two branches of the Laurel mountain over a narrow and rough road. Owing to the heavy rain the roads were rendered very difficult for the men and the few wagons of ammunition and provisions. By 11 o’clock the rain became a drenching storm and so continued for several hours, the roads in the mountains becoming almost impassable. At 2 o’clock the whole command was up in the position we now occupy.
“The attention of the commanding general is particularly called to the gallant bearing of the infantry and artillery which led the advance. I would also call attention to the fact that the entire command commenced the pursuit on a few minutes’ notice, without time to prepare even a day’s rations for the haversacks. I ordered four wagons to be loaded with hard bread and pork to follow the command. These four wagons, with the little additional rations put in with the ammunition, are all the provisions the command has had since leaving Belington, except some beeves procured in this vicinity.
“The march of yesterday was from eighteen to twenty miles. When it is considered that we have put to flight a force equal to our own, and have pursued the rebels night and day for thirty hours, almost without provisions, over a mountainous and difficult road, and part of the time through a drenching storm, we may feel sure that our cause must be successfully maintained by men who show such gallant bearing and soldierly endurance.”
Then came the brilliant attack upon the enemy at Carrick’s Ford, which resulted in the utter defeat and rout of the rebels. Their commander, General Garnett, was among the killed. The story of this important engagement cannot be more concisely told than by giving almost entire the official report of General H. W. Benham, who was in immediate command of the Union force. The report was made to General Morris:
“In accordance with your directions, I this morning took command of the advance guard of your column, consisting of the Fourteenth Ohio, Colonel Steadman, with one section of Barnett’s Artillery, the Seventh Indiana, Colonel Dumont, and the Ninth Indiana, Colonel Milroy, in all about 1,800 men. With this force, as instructed, I started from Leadsville at about 4 o’clock a. m. to pursue the army of General Garnett, which, consisting, as we learned, of 4,000 to 5,000 men and four to six cannon, had retreated from the north side of Laurel mountain near Belington the day before yesterday. It being ascertained that the enemy had retired toward the village of New Interest and thence, as was supposed, over a mountain road leading to the Shafer Fork, or main branch, of the Cheat river, to Saint George. The troops were brought rapidly forward on their route, so as to reach the entrance of the mountain road—about seven miles march—at 6 o’clock. A short distance after entering this path the passage was found to be obstructed by large trees, recently felled, in about twelve to fifteen places, and in nearly every defile for three or four miles. Information was from time to time received that this force, which had some fifteen hours the start of us from Belington, was now only four to five miles in advance. This encouraged our efforts, and though for nearly the whole time the rain was pouring in torrents and the clayey roads were in many places almost impassable, the spirit of the troops, without exception, as it came under my eye, was such as to bear them most rapidly onward under all these trials, super-added to that of hunger, with which the greater part of them had suffered for the previous fifteen or twenty hours.
At about noon we reached Kaler’s, the first ford of the Shafer Branch or main fork of Cheat river, having within the previous two or three miles fired at and driven in several pickets of the enemy protecting those who were forming the barricades, and at one place we broke up a camp where the meals were being cooked. At the ford near Kaler’s, and at about half the distance to another ford, which we afterward met with one mile farther on, we saw the baggage train of the enemy, apparently at rest. This I proposed to attack as soon as strengthened by the arrival of Steadman’s second battalion, with Dumont’s regiment, when the thoughtless firing of a musket at our ford set the train rapidly in motion, and long lines of infantry were formed in order of battle to protect it. In a few minutes, however, the arrival of Barnett’s artillery, with Dumont close upon it, enabled the command to push forward in its original order, but the train and its guard had retired, leaving only a few skirmishers to meet us at the second ford, where, however, quite a rapid firing was kept up by the advance regiment, and Barnett’s artillery opened for some minutes to more completely clear the adjacent woods of the enemy.
“We then continued our march rapidly to the ford, and as we approached it we came upon the enemy’s train, the last half of it just crossing, in the river. The enemy was found to have taken a strong position, with his infantry and artillery, upon a precipitous bank fifty to eighty feet in height, upon the opposite side of the river, while our own position was upon the low land, nearly level with the river. Steadman’s regiment, in the advance, opened fire most gallantly upon them, which was immediately returned by their strong force of infantry and by their cannon, upon which Barnett’s artillery was ordered up and opened upon them with excellent effect.