The Civil War Record of Albert Gallatin Jenkins, C. S. A.
By Flora Smith Johnson
I. INTRODUCTION
Albert Gallatin Jenkins was born November 10, 1830, on the
plantation at Greenbottom1 which his father, William Jenkins, had
owned and occupied since 1825. Between the ages of fourteen and
eighteen he attended Jefferson College, at Canonsburg,
Pennsylvania. After his graduation there in 1848 he entered upon
the study of law at Harvard University, and in 1850 was admitted to
the bar. In 1856, he went as a delegate to the National Democratic
Convention held in Cincinnati, and from 1857 to 1861 he represented
his district in the 36th and 37th Congresses. In April 1861, he
resigned his seat in Congress, feeling impelled to ally himself at
once with the Confederate cause.2
Jenkins performed illustrious services as a leader of cavalry in
the border warfare that was waged in Western Virginia. An English
writer regarded him as a romantic border chieftain, who had led his
people in swift and inexplicable forays to wrest their freedom from
an invader.3
His military experience was attended by fitting recognition and
promotion. The Confederate high command called him to assist in
carrying out their purposes in other theaters of war, on one
occasion choosing him above all other Confederate cavalrymen for a
service of major importance. The following paragraphs will attempt
to trace the trend of this man's Civil War career, to give an
account of some of his exploits, to present an estimate of his
character as a soldier, and as an implement in the Confederate
cause.
II. 1861
After leaving Washington, Jenkins returned to his home at
Greenbottom where, on April 20, 1861, he was elected captain of a
company composed of a hundred and one riflemen from Cabell and
Mason counties. Jenkins converted the members of his company into
cavalrymen and gave them the name of Border Rangers. On May
29, 1861, they were sworn in as Confederate soldiers.4
Jenkins immediately identified himself with the Virginia forces
who were fighting to defend the Kanawha Valley. In the latter part
of June he advanced from Charleston to Point Pleasant with a party
of fifty men. There he captured several prominent citizens who had
been active in the movement for the partition of the state. Colonel
J. S. Norton of the First Regiment of Ohio State Troops, at
Gallipolis, crossed the river and made an attempt to overtake
Jenkins. Having failed in this, the Ohio officer ordered his men to
make a thorough search for Secessionists. The Ohioans found thirty
of these whom they held as hostages. This raid brought Jenkins to
the attention of the public.5
On June 17, at the battle of Scary Creek, near St. Albans, the
action of Jenkins made possible a victory which was the first
success for the Southerners in an open fight, and did much to
restore their confidence. Colonel George S. Patton of the
Twenty-second Virginia Infantry tried to defend his position on
Scary Creek against superior numbers and equipment. With the
wounding of Patton, panic seized the Virginians, and many of them
fell back. Jenkins and others restored order, but shortly afterward
a second panic succeeded. At that point Jenkins himself took
command, a rally followed, and the Federals were driven back and
forced to recross the Kanawha River.6
After the battle of Scary, Jenkins was made Colonel of the
Eighth Virginia Regiment of which his original command, the Border
Rangers, became Company E.7
On August 25, 1861, Jenkin's cavalry was defeated at Hawk's
Nest, near Piggot's Mill, by an infantry ambuscade. This was the
result of his "incautiously advancing" and replacing the guards of
General Henry A. Wise, who was taking every precaution for the
defense of his lines. By this act of interference Jenkins
unnecessarily imperiled his men, several of whom were wounded.8
On the night of November 10, 1861, Jenkins with seven hundred
men made a swift surprise attack upon the Regiment of Ninth
Virginia Infantry, then in process of formation at Guyandotte.9 Of
the one hundred and fifty at that time comprising the body, only
those escaped who fled or concealed themselves at the outset, and
Jenkins captured all their papers, books, and rolls. The next
morning the steamboat Boston came up from Portsmouth, Ohio,
bringing two hundred of the Fifth Virginia Regiment. These soldiers
turned the cannon upon the town and afterward burned the most
valuable property in Guyandotte.10 From there the Jenkins command
went into winter-quarters at the camp meeting ground in Russell
County, Virginia.11
By this time Jenkins had reduced the territory lying between the
Guyandotte and Big Sandy rivers to a state of anarchy. In December
1861 a petition, drawn up at Wheeling and signed by Governor
Francis H. Pierpont, requested Abraham Lincoln to send a strong
official who would be capable of stamping out rebellion in that
region. The petition informed the President that it was through the
highways of the Guyandotte and Big Sandy River valleys that the
Confederates had from the beginning transported supplies to their
armies.12 Also in December 1861, Jenkins was endorsed for the
commission of brigadier general.13
II. 1862
While serving thus as a soldier in his native borderland,
Jenkins had been elected to represent the Fourteenth Virginia
Congressional District in the first Congress of Confederate States.
He served as Congressman only from the opening date, February 18,
1862, until August 6, 1862, for at that time he was issued the
commission of brigadier general and sent back to the
battlefield.14
In August and September 1862, Jenkins performed his most
brilliant military exploit, a raid into West[ern] Virginia and
Ohio. Major General William W. Loring, commanding Department of
Western Virginia, sent him out with about five hundred and fifty
cavalrymen with orders to sweep around the northwest by the Cheat
Valley, destroy the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and fall upon the
rear of the enemy in the Kanawha Valley, about September 8.
Jenkins left the Salt Sulphur Springs in Monroe County August
22, marched through the Great Sewell settlement of Pocahontas
County, over the mountain, and down the headwaters of the Tygart's
River Valley. He had expected to surprise Beverly, but upon hearing
that it had been heavily reinforced, decided not to make the
attack. Crossing Rich Mountain by a trail leading through thirty
miles of wilderness, Jenkins finally emerged from the fastness and
entered the Buckhannon River Valley. The home guards of that region
fired upon him constantly, but he drew near to Buckhannon and, by a
skillful arrangement of his cavalry, defeated his enemy and took
possession of the town.
At Buckhannon Jenkins equipped his men with valuable rifles and
other supplies from the stores he captured and then destroyed the
remainder, including five thousand stand of arms, and ordnance
stores and clothing in large quantities. At Weston the next
morning, August 31, the Sixth West Virginia Regiment escaped in the
fog, leaving only a few men. Jenkins destroyed all the public
property in Weston and marched on to Glenville, from which he drove
the Federal guard with a single round of fire.
On September 2, at Spencer Court House he surprised and captured
Colonel J. C. Rathbone and his entire command, the Eleventh West
Virginia Regiment. Jenkins paroled his prisoners and rode on to
Ripley. There he found a defenseless paymaster from whom he took
funds to the amount of $5,525. Moving on to Ravenswood, he rested
his men there, and on the evening of September 4 forded the Ohio
and set up the flag of the Confederate government on Ohio soil. On
a march of some distance in Ohio, Jenkins took pride in treating
the citizens with consideration. He captured Racine and there
recrossed the river.
General Loring pronounced this expedition a great success. He
said that Jenkins had executed all but the destruction of the
railroad in the time required, had marched five hundred miles,
mostly within hostile lines, and had accomplished these things:
Capture and parole of three hundred prisoners of war; a thousand
enemy casualties; reclamation of forty thousand square miles of
territory for the Confederate government; destruction of many home
guard garrisons and the records of the Wheeling and Federal
governments in many counties; seizure of many valuable arms for his
men, and destruction of five thousand stands of small arms, one
piece of cannon, and immense stores; an advance of not less than
twenty miles through the State of Ohio, in which his policy of
humane warfare won many friends for the Confederacy; weakening of
the hold of the Federals by arriving on time in their rear.15
After his expulsion from the Kanawha Valley on October 31, 1862,
Jenkins was assigned to work in Greenbrier, Pocahontas, and
Nicholas counties.16 In December 1862, at the request of General
Lee, he left the Department of Western Virginia and reported for
duty in the Shenandoah Valley. There in the winter of 1862-63,
Jenkins and others constituted the "Valley Defenses." During the
winter of 1862-63 Jenkins also had charge of finding foraging
places in Virginia and North Carolina for the horses and mules of
that department. Moreover, he established a line of couriers
between the Valley and General Lee's headquarters, and guarded the
passes of the mountains.17
IV. 1863 and 1864
On March 18, 1863, Jenkins started with a part of his brigade on
another raid across Western Virginia. At Hurricane Bridge, now
Hurricane, March 27, he arrogantly ordered the Union guard to
surrender. A fight of five hours' duration came to an end with the
sullen withdrawal of Jenkins and his men. On March 30, 1863, he
surprised the garrison at Point Pleasant. Although he succeeded in
driving these men into the courthouse there, he lacked equipment
adequate to dislodge them. After a few hours Jenkins retired and
crossed the Kanawha River.18
In June 1863, he was called to the Shenandoah Valley at the
opening of the Gettysburg campaign and assigned to cooperate in a
plan made by Major General R. E. Rodes as follows: Simultaneous
attack on Winchester and Berryville; the subsequent attack on
Martinsburg; the immediate entrance into Maryland, by way of
Williamsport. Rode's division was to attack and seize Berryville,
then to advance on Martinsburg and move on into Maryland. Other
divisions were to attack and reduce Winchester. At Berryville,
Jenkins drove in the cavalry, but the artillery held his brigade at
bay; he demanded the surrender of Martinsburg, June 14, 1863, but
the Federals held him in check for several hours before retreating.
The fall of Martinsburg cleared the Shenandoah Valley of United
States forces.
On June 16, 17, and 18, 1863, Jenkin's cavalry helped the
quartermasters and commissaries to obtain supplies for their
departments. Although he had been carefully instructed about
transacting this business by regular purchases, Jenkins did not
require his men to account for large numbers of horses which they
seized and kept.19
Thus Jenkins led the way into Pennsylvania.20 Arriving at
Greencastle, he took up his residence at the home of the editor of
the Repository, in whose clover fields he pastured his
horses.21 Next he occupied Chambersburg which he had been ordered
to hold until the arrival of the Rodes division. But upon hearing
of the approach of Federals in superior numbers, Jenkins promptly
withdrew, leaving supplies that would have been highly valuable to
the Southern troops. Reoccupying Chambersburg, June 22, he found
that the coveted stores had been removed or concealed after his
departure. On June 27, his cavalrymen were at Carlisle; and before
the concentration at Gettysburg, they had reached Harrisburg, where
Jenkins had made a reconnaissance of defenses with a view to an
attack by Rodes.22
Jenkins was wounded on July 2 in the battle of Gettysburg. His
brigade was taken by Colonel M. J. Ferguson and commanded
temporarily by him.23 In the organization of the Army of Northern
Virginia for the battle the Jenkins brigade is listed as included
in the division of Major General J. E. B. Stuart, and as consisting
of the Fourteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Regiments, and the
Thirty-fourth and Thirty-sixth Virginia Battalions.24 The loss of
killed, wounded, or missing, is not of record.25 General Rodes
mentioned Jenkins as one of nine Confederates who had won
distinction in the Gettysburg campaign.26
General Lee stated that the members of the Jenkins command were
affected by a spirit of localism. In presenting a reorganization
plan for the cavalry, Lee said he had not separated these men,
since they claimed to have been raised for special service in
Western Virginia.27 It was late in the fall of 1863 before Jenkins
had recovered, and in the meantime his brigade had been on detached
service in the Department of Western Virginia and Tennessee.
In 1864, Jenkins was again at his mountain work in the
Department of Western Virginia. On February 11, he was organizing a
large cavalry corps to be used in Western Virginia in the coming
spring.28 On February 21, he was at Callahan's Station with five
thousand men. On February 24, Jenkins and others had a command of
seven thousand at Franklin in Pendleton County.29
By the month of May 1864, Jenkins had been appointed Commander
of the Department of Western Virginia with headquarters at Dublin.
Upon hearing that Brigadier General George Crook, commanding Second
Infantry Division, Department of West Virginia, had advanced from
the Kanawha Valley, with overwhelming numbers, Jenkins took up a
position five miles from Dublin, on Cloyd's Mountain. The battle
known by that name, a bloody defeat for the Confederates was one of
the principal events in a Federal expedition against the Virginia
and Tennessee Railroad made between May 2 and May 19, 1864.
The fighting began early in the morning of May 9. Crook found
that the Southerners had settled upon a wooded spur, three quarters
of a mile beyond the summit of the mountain. The Second Brigade
engaged the forces of Jenkins. Crook then ordered a charge of the
First and Third Brigades across an intervening meadow. As they
charged, the Confederates fired heavily upon them, throwing part of
the Third into temporary disorder.
Crook's men arrived at the foot of the spur upon which Jenkins
had stationed his troops the preceding day. Moving steadily upward
and approaching the formidable breastworks on the crest, the
Federals rushed upon Jenkin's men, put them to rout, and killed and
wounded them in great numbers.30 Jenkins himself fell, seriously
wounded, and was captured.
Colonel John S. McCausland who had delayed departure from Dublin
in order to join his forces with those of Jenkins for the battle,
then took charge and effected an orderly retreat. Jenkins died on
May 24, 1864 at Dublin. On May 27, McCausland was given the
commission of brigadier general and assigned to command the Jenkins
brigade.31
V. CONCLUSION
General Jenkins, then, accomplished much for the Confederate
fortunes in Western Virginia, both by arduous mountain marches and
by raids and forays that served to demoralize the enemy in
strategic regions. He was prominent both in the campaign for the
Kanawha Valley and in the attempt to destroy the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad. By reason of his success, he reached the position of
commanding officer of his department. He played a vital part in the
Shenandoah Valley campaign and assisted materially in the invasion
of Pennsylvania. He was a brilliant, brave, and clement leader, who
exemplified the highest ideals of the proverbial Confederate
cavalryman.
APPENDIX
1. Major Achilles James Tynes wrote on May 24, 1864:
No more on his proud steed shall he sweep o'er the plains,
cheering by his ringing voice and flashing eye his struggling
cavaliers to deeds of daring, breasting with the foremost the storm
of battle.
2. Major S. M. Gaines wrote on June 14, 1923 to Miss Margaret
Virginia Jenkins:
Your father commanded a Brigade of Cavalry which he raised and
organized. It was composed of the 14th, 16th, and 17th Regiments
and 34th and 36th Battalions, (sic) all cavalry. He was a
brilliant man and one of the most talented and attractive men I
ever knew. he had great personal magnetism, was wonderfully
winning. He served under General Stuart in the Gettysburg campaign.
His command known as Jenkins Brigade.
General Lee had a very high opinion of his skill as a commander,
as was shown by the fact that when Gen. Lee decided to invade
Pennsylvania in 1863 he selected your father in preference to all
other cavalry officers to command the force which was first to
enter Pennsylvania and cleared (sic) the way for the rest of
our army. This he did with great skill and success. He sometimes
commanded several Brigades, a division.
3. E. F. Chapman in the Huntington Herald, June 22, 1900,
has given the following account of Jenkins:
That General Jenkins was a brave man is fully attested by the
circumstances of his death. During the battle of Cloyd's Mountain
his brigade was charged by two Ohio regiments of Federal troops . .
. and repulsed. Then came the charge of the 91 O. V. I. and 9th W.
Va., I, under command of Gen. Duval of Brooke County, this state.
Jenkins' brigade was broken and began a hasty retreat. The General
headed the 45th Virginia and, with drawn sword, was encouraging the
men to stand and cover the retreat of the other regiments of the
brigade. They too fled, leaving the General alone, when he was shot
from his horse and picked up by the Federal troops. He was taken to
the house of Mr. Cloyd (or Guthrie) and all possible done to aid
his recovery, but he died on the above date.
All in all, Cabell County never produced a more illustrious son
and well may those of his comrades who still survive feel justly
proud of their leader and military chieftain, who, had he lived,
would have furnished material for some of the brightest pages of
our state and national history. (sic.)
4. In a letter written from Salem, Virginia, January 28, 1863,
to Zebulon B. Vance, Governor of North Carolina, Jenkins says:
. . . . In thus distributing these animals, and after
overstocking almost every part of Virginia, it became a matter of
necessity to send some of them to portions of North Carolina where
both grain and long forage were abundant. But unfortunately, there
is great indisposition on the part of the people there to sell
their produce for Confederate money at any price, and I desire to
ask relief at your hands in the form of authority of some kind for
impressment. This authority you can limit with such restrictions as
will make it entirely certain that no injustice will be done to
your people. If some step of this kind is not taken promptly, and
we should be compelled in this portion of Southwestern Virginia to
bring the horses in the service of the Government back to this
section, and thus consume the forage which is essential to the
wants of our armies elsewhere, it is manifest that most serious
detriment to the public service must occur.
Knowing your disinterested patriotism, not only from your public
character but also from a personal acquaintance which I had the
pleasure of having while we were both members of the old Federal
Congress, and your full and entire devotion to our cause (which is
not the cause of a State, but of the whole South), I have taken the
liberty of addressing you upon the subject. . . .
5. Correspondence of Jenkins with Colonel B. F. Smith:
Headquarters, Camp near Martinsburg,
June 14, 1863.
The Commanding Officer U. S. Forces near Martinsburg:
Sir: I herewith demand the surrender of Martinsburg. Should you
refuse, you are respectfully requested to notify the inhabitants of
the place to remove forthwith to a place of safety. Small-arms only
will be used for one hour upon the town after your reception of
this note. After that, I shall feel at liberty to shell the town,
if I see proper. Should you refuse to give the necessary
notification to the inhabitants, I shall be compelled to hold your
command responsible.
Very truly yours, (sic)
A. G. Jenkins,
Brigadier General, etc.
P. S. An immediate reply is necessary.
Headquarters, U. S. Forces
Martinsburg, W. Va., June 14, 1863.
A. G. Jenkins, Brigadier General, etc.
General: Martinsburg will not be surrendered. You may commence
shelling as soon as you choose. I will, however, inform the
inhabitants of your threats.
Very respectfully, yours, (sic)
B. F. Smith
Colonel, Commanding U. S. Forces.
6. James D. Sedinger, a Border Ranger, has written as follows in
an account of the regiment's activities while on duty in
Tennessee:
. . . We stayed in Tazewell and Mercer Counties, Virginia, until
October 7th, '63, when we were ordered to Abingdon, Virginia, to
report for duty to General Wm. E. Jones. The regiment was sent to
Bristol, Tennessee, with orders to do picket and scout on all roads
leading to Bristol. . . . One day while moving out with part of the
Company under Lieutenant Thompson, our orderly Sergeant, Daniel
Ruffner, who had been drinking, struck a citizen with his revolver.
The man who was armed shot the orderly and killed him. He made his
escape and was hid by his friends. We never could find him. . .
.
On another occasion 8 of the boys went on a little scouting
expedition of their own into Sullivan county Tennessee. There was
an old gentleman of well-known Union sentiments in that part who
had some pretty daughters and some old apple brandy. The boys
slipped by our pickets in round about way and struck the road about
mile from the Yankee guard and came up and charged the old man's
house about 12 o'clock at night waking the gentleman and all his
family. He thinking we were Yanks ordered the whole family to get
up and give the best the house afforded. We had a splendid supper
and plenty of fun with the girls. He gave us all the brandy we
wanted and filled our canteens when we left. Told us to call at any
time we was in that part of the country, and each one of us should
have one of his daughters as they should not marry anyone but a
Union soldier. We thanked the old gentleman, kissed the girls and
left, going the way we came toward the Yankees. I don't think he
ever knew any better.
On November 6th was ordered to prepare 3 days rations and march
to Rogersville, Tennessee. On the morning of the 8th the old
company was ordered to the front and told to form by 4's as we were
to charge a house that was full of militia and Company A was to
support us. We formed with our revolvers in our hands and started
ready for action at any time. On topping a little hill we found
ourselves within 20 feet of a company of Yanks. Captain Everett
ordered a charge, and at them we went head foremost. They started
to run and it was a horse race for 3 miles in the mud. We did get
them all but the Captain -- his horse was too fast for us or we
would have gotten him. They was the muddiest set of Yanks when we
went back to see how many there was of them, we think, that was
ever captured. We re-formed after the charge, went into Rogersville
and gobbled about all of them that was there. Our captures that
morning amounted to 800 prisoners and one battery of artillery and
a large amount of stores. The boys was pretty well clothed and shod
when we had finished up for the day. We had plenty to eat for a
Confederate soldier -- sardines and hardtack. Several of them had
their haversacks well filled and the canteens was not forgotten. .
. . (sic)
7. T. B. Summers, of Milton, in a poem called Cabell County's
Hero, has written the following lines:
Where the Ohio gently flows,
Lived a man, as history knows,
Full of life, and at his ease,
Yet he choose to give up these,
And bestir himself in might,
Planning for the seeming flight,
That was hovering o'er the land,
Seeming Peace could not command.
Wild the tempest of the day,
Telling of the coming fray,
When the sons of North and South,
Would each face the cannon's mouth.
In the Blue, or in the Gray,
As the surge held forth its sway;
Then no heart would fail to swear
Both to Do and Bravely Dare.
Then Four Years of Strife and Strain,
Brave Old Heroes Without Stain.
Back again to friends and home,
But so many could not Come;
In the battle, they Were Slain,
So could never come again,
By Ohio's rippling shore,
Gen. Jenkins walks no More. (sic)
1. Greenbottom is the name given to a stretch of land lying east
of Guyandotte along the Ohio River. "The Jenkins farm consisting of
4441 acres extended seven miles along the river front and as far
back into the hills as they would pay taxes." (See Dictionary of
American Biography, Vol. X; also Roy Bird Cook, "Albert G.
Jenkins, A Confederate Portrait," West Virginia Review (May
1934).
2. Robert Douthat Mead, "Albert Gallatin Jenkins," Dictionary
of American Biography, Vol. X.
3. Editorial in The London Index, July 14, 1864,
(Typewritten copy of the original), 3.
4. James D. Sedinger Diary, (Typewritten copy, 19 pp., n.d.),
Roy Bird Cook Collection, Charleston, 1.
5. The War of the Rebellion: Official Records, Ser. 1,
II, 757.
6. Official Records, Ser. 1, II, pp. 291-93; also Robert
White, "West Virginia," Confederate Military History, II,
29.
7. Sedinger, op. cit., 2.
8. Official Records, Ser. 1, V, 115-16, 157, 816.
9. Guyandotte was the western terminus of the James River and
Kanawha Turnpike and was one of the most important river points in
Western Virginia. In the burning of the town, two deluxe hotels,
appropriate for the accommodation of fashionable travelers, were
destroyed. (See Charles Henry Ambler, A History of
Transportation in the Ohio Valley, 138; George Selden Wallace,
Cabell County Annals and Families, 326-36, et
passim.)
10. Official Records, Ser. 1, V, 411-12.
11. Sedinger, op. cit., 3.
12. Official Records, Ser. 1, V, 674-75.
13. Ibid., 1001-1002.
14. Official Records, Ser. 4, III, 1189.
15. Official Records, Ser. 1, XII, Pt. 2; 756-61.
16. Official Records, Ser. 1, XIV, Pt. 2; 690.
17. Ibid., 879.
18. Official Records, Ser. 1, LI, Pt. 1; 176.
19. Official Records, Ser. 1, XXVII, Pt. 2; 17, 442, 547,
550.
20. While attending college in Pennsylvania (supra)
Jenkins was a founder and charter member of the Phi Gamma Delta
Fraternity. It is claimed by members of this order that certain
city officials, members of a rival fraternity, asked to be spared
the rigors of war on the strength of a common Alma Mater; but that
Jenkins replied in the negative, adding that they did not "wear the
Delta badge." (See History of Phi Gamma Delta, II, 328.
21. S. P. Bates, Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania (Extract),
1.
22. Official Records, Ser. 1, XXVII, Pt. 2; 551.
23. Ibid., 698.
24. Ibid., 290.
25. Ibid., 346.
26. Ibid., 559.
27. Ibid., Pt. 3; 1068-1069.
28. Ibid., XXXIII, 552-53.
29. Ibid., 592.
30. Ibid., Pt. 1; 723-24.
31. Ibid., 9-11, 44, 50, 721, 747.
Source: Journal of West Virginia History Volume 8, Number 4 (July 1947), pp. 392-404
