Summary:
Union Cavalry General William Averell reports on June, 1864, cavalry movements in
the Shenandoah Valley. Averell reports receiving long-awaited supplies in
Staunton.
Charleston W. Va.,
July 1, 1864.
COL.:
I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of the cavalry under my command since the 1st ultimo:
On the 1st of June my division, consisting of the brigades of Brig.-Gen. Duffie, Col. Schoonmaker, and Col. J. H. Oley, was encamped at Bunger's Mills, Greenbrier County, waiting for supplies from Charleston of horses, shoes, clothing, &c. Crook's division crossed the river on that day, leaving me to bring up my detachments and supplies, which did not arrive.
On the 2d Mr. David Creigh, a citizen of Lewisburg, was tried by a military commission and found guilty of murdering a Union soldier in November last. The proceedings were subsequently approved and Mr. Creigh was hanged at Belleview on Friday, the 10th of June.
The detachments and supplies for which we had so long waited failing to arrive, I followed Crook's division on the 3d to White Sulphur Springs with 3,200 mounted and 1,200 dismounted men; 600 men were without shoes, and many other articles of clothing were much needed.
From the 18th of May until this day we had waited near Lewisburg upon half rations, most of the time for necessary supplies of horse-shoes, nails, and clothing; but owing to the miserable, inadequate, and insufficient transportation furnished from the Kanawha we were obliged to set out again almost as destitute as when we arrived. The march from Sulphur Springs to Staunton was made in five days via Morris' Hill, Warm Springs, Goshen and Middlebrook. My barefooted men suffered terribly, but without complaint on this march. At Staunton the much needed supplies were received.
On the 9th Brig.-Gen. Duffie was placed in command of the First Cavalry Division and my own was reorganized as follows,viz: First Brigade, Col. Schoonmaker--Fourteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, Eighth Ohio; Second Brigade, Col. Oley-Seventh West Virginia Cavalry, Thirty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Mounted Infantry, Third West Virginia Cavalry, Fifth West Virginia Cavalry; Third Brigade, Col. Powell--First West Virginia Cavalry, Second West Virginia Cavalry.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 37, Serial No. 70, Pages 145-146, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
