September 12th [1861]

Head Quarters Army of Ka.
Camp Walker. 5 mls. west of Hawk's Nest.
As predicted in my remarks on the 9th, a decisive
move as been made. The reported advance of
the enemy proved true. Mc Causland with his
regiment, waggons &c evacuated Summerville
in the face of the enemy on the night of the 9th &
arrived at Camp Gauley early on the following
morning. The advance of the enemy entered Sum-
mersville half an hour after McCausland left.

Till 12 o clock our scouts came in & reported the
advance of a heavy force on the road towards our
camp. Nothing positive & reliable could be ascer-
tained. Whether the enemy intended passing us
& reinforcing Cox or purposed taking a position
a few miles in advance, & waiting for Cox to
reinforce them, was not known. Indeed till
12 o'clock we were kept in anxious, painful,
suspense. Some were of opinion that the whole army
of Rosencrantz was precipitated upon us -- others that
only a few regiments were on their way from
Suttonsville to reinforce Cox & a consultation was
held to decide, whether we should march out &
intercept them or not. Just before 12 o'clock
we though that, by inaction on our part & the inef-
ficiency of our scouts & pickets, a few regiments
had marched almost in sight of our camp &
passed us unhurt & were out of our grasp.

Of course gloom & disappointment prevailed in the
bosom of all & down cast countenances were seen
of every side. Should this have been affected,
nothing but misfortune & defeat stared us in
the face, for Cox's force wld. have been overwhelm-
ing when compared with ours. Our force consisted
of 5 skeleton regiments, half of the men in each
having been stricken down by sickness or disease--
reducing our force to less than 2200! With these
a line of defence from 16 mls. was to be protected.
The entire line was protected by temporary
breastworks made of trees felled for the purpose,
a perfect defence against small arms. A battery
of 4 guns 6 pdr. iron cannon were stationed in
a temporary fortification about the centre of
our works. About the middle of the day our
^'pickets' came running in at full speed & announced
that ^'the' enemy ^'were' one mile from us & rapidly advan-
cing. then was our doubt dispelled & every
man was under arms in a few minutes.
Heth's regiment was posted on the right
wing & between the cliff & the field
work in ^'which' Captain Guy's battery from
Goochland, containing four 6 Pdr. iron
guns (very common) was stationed.

On the left of the battery was Col Reynold's
regiment, on the left of this regiment,
Col. McCausland's & Tompkin's & Wharton's
regiment were stationed. Just at this
time Capt. Jackson's battery of two guns
arrived from Gen. Wise. Nothing could
have been more acceptable -- not all the
gold in California. Here it must be
mentioned that when we were first
apprised of the enemy's approach, peremp-
tory orders were sent to Gen. Wise
to reinforce us with 1000 men immediately.
Fearing that he might be slow, as he
before had proved himself, in executing
General Floyd's commands, a second
messenger was dispatched with the same
orders, explaining our perilous condition
& urging prompt action. Orders were also
sent to two regiments on their way from
Lewisburg to hurry on, but they were
too far in rear to reach us before the
battle was decided. Hence our^'this' little
force were ^'was' left alone to fight the battle,
& like heroes our men renewed [?] themselves
for any fate. For two hours our ^'the' little
band stood expecting every moment
to be fired upon, & had almost
despaired of a fight. During all htis time
our brave old General was coolly riding
along the lines cheering his men. Capt.
Peters, Major Glass, Mr McMahon &
myself accompanied the General on
horse back. Suddenly at 3 1/4 oclock, the
long wished for enemy appeared about
200 yds in advance of our battery. Immediately
our men commenced the fire with cannon &
small arms, which was at once returned
by small arms. Now the action was
commenced in earnest. In 10 minutes the
artillery of the enemy opened fire.
Volley upon volley now thundered from
each side, & that combined with the
roar of cannon rendered the scene
terrific. During the evening, the enemy
five times boldly charged our lines, &
were as often repulsed with heavy
loss. Three times their battery was
silenced by Capt. Guy's battery which
did terrible execution with grape
& shell. Nearly all the firing from the
enemy's artillery was ineffective, their
balls passing over our heads & shells
bursting beyond us, till late in the
evening when they obtained the range
quite accurately, & wounded several of our men with shells.

Woods continually mispells the name of Union General William Starke Rosecrans.