thousand. There was a desperate struggle; but Grant fought his way back to his transports, and escaped undercover of a fire from the gunboats. These were admirably handled in the engagement respectively by Commanders Walke and Stemble. The Nationals lost about five hundred men, and the Confederates over six hundred.
We have observed that the Confederates, though defeated in Western Virginia in the summer of 1861, resolved not to relinquish possession of that granary without another struggle.  It occurred in the autumn of that year. The troops left by Garnett and Pegram were placed in charge of General Robert E. Lee, and early in August he was at the head of about sixteen thousand fighting men. John B. Floyd, the late Secretary of War, was sent with some troops to reinforce those under General Wise, and to take the chief command in the region of the Gauly River. Lee made his headquarters at Huntersville, in Pocahontas county, and he placed a strong guard on Buffalo Mountain, at the crossing of the Staunton turnpike. Much was expected from Floyd, for he promised much. It was expected that he would move swiftly down the Kanawha Valley, and drive General Cox across the Ohio River; while Lee should disperse the army of ten thousand men under Rosecrans, McClellan's successor, at Clarksburg, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and so open a way for an invading force of Confederates into the States of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Floyd made his headquarters a few miles from Summerville.
Early in September, Rosecrans marched southward in search of Floyd. He scaled the Gauly Mountains with great difficulty, and on the 10th found his foe at Carnifex Ferry on the Gauly River. Rosecrans, fell upon the Ex-Secretary furiously, and for three hours they fought desperately. The contest ceased at twilight; and during the night Floyd stole away under cover of darkness, and did not halt until he reached the summit of Big Sewell Mountain, thirty miles distant. Meanwhile the Nationals under General J.J. Reynolds, whom Rosecrans had left to confront Lee in the Cheat Mountain region, were watching the roads and passes of the more westerly of the Alleghany range of hills. They observed that Lee's scouts were very active, and that he was evidently preparing to strike a blow somewhere. Finally the object of his movements was made clear, which was to attack the Nationals at Elkwater, and the outpost of Indiana troops on the summit of Cheat Mountain, so as to secure the Pass and have a free communication with the Shenandoah Valley, at Staunton. For that object Lee marched from Huntersville on the night of the 11th of September, with nine thousand men and nearly a dozen pieces of artillery, to strike the post at Elkwater, the Summit and the Pass at the same moment. A storm was sweeping over the mountains and favored the enterprise. But it was unsuccessful. Lee was repulsed at Elkwater and the Summit, when he withdrew and joined Floyd on Big Sewell Mountain between the forks of the Kanawha. Their combined forces numbered about twenty thousand men, and they were there confronted by about ten thousand Nationals under Rosecrans, assisted by Generals Cox, Schenck, and Benham.
Very soon afterward, General Lee, whose campaign had been a failure, was recalled and sent to Georgia. He was succeeded by Floyd. The incompetent Wise was also recalled. Floyd, as chief commander in Western Virginia, took post on New River, from which he was driven by Rosecrans on the 12th of November, and was pursued about fifty miles. Then he retired from the army, but reappeared
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