September 9th: 1861

Head quarters Army of the Ka. Camp Gauley
Heretofore rain has been the order of the day,
& we were nearly coming to the conclusion,
that in these mountains clouds & storms were
the invariable attendants or followers of the
Sun in his daily course. Our operations, as
well as those of Gen. Lee have been serious-
ly impeded by this disagreeable weather &
the consequence of it, bad roads. to day, however
we were cheered by the unobstructed rays
of old Phoebus & the delightful promise of
fair weather in future -- Last night, while
quietly reposing, our slumbers were suddenly
disturbed by the rapid tread of a horse.

It proved to be the arrival of a messen-
ger from Col. McCausland, who is stationed
8 miles north of us at Summersville, with
his regiment of 450 men. The dispatch
stated that the enemy, 6000 strong, were advan-
cing upon us from Suttonville. Though
making the necessary allowance for exagger-
ation, this report was no welcome one
to our General. Sickness, that foe more
istructive to armies ^'than' the bullets of an
adversary, had deprived us of more than
half our men & our regiments were
mere skeletons, the largest not containing
above 600 men. thus our whole force in
this camp does not exceed 2000 men.
This advancing column united to Cox's
at Gauley would form an army so
much more numerous than ours that,
to say the least, it wld. be ^'an' undertaking
which wld. test the bravery & courage of
our soldiers to withstand their attack.
Orders were at once sent to Gen. Wise
to reinforce us with Tompkins regiment
& to place one of his own at Dogwood
Gap in supporting distance.
Early in the morning before breakfast
Gen. Floyd dispatched the ^'to' the camp of
cavalry, at the Cross-Lanes with orders
to Capt. Corns to scout the road beyond
Summerville. Col. McCausland was
also directed to fall back from
Summerville, with waggons, provisions
&c in case the enemy advanced upon
him. the road towards Gauley Bridge
is also Scouted by Capt. Dikinson's company,
with others. From all appearances, some
decisive move will be made in the next
few days. No mail arrived to day; -
a great disappointment to all of us.