During February occurred two daring exploits at opposite extremities of the State. The first was the capture of the United States steamer B. C. Levi, at Red House shoals, on the Kanawha, on the night of February 2d, by Maj. J. H. Nounnan, with less than 30 men. The Confederates quietly boarded the boat while lashed to the bank, and captured Gen. E. P. Scammon, commander of the Federal division at Charleston, his staff and 13 soldiers. The steamer was run four miles down the river next morning and burned, and the general and his staff were mounted and carried to Richmond.
The other adventure was by Maj. H. W. Gilmor, who threw a Baltimore & Ohio train off the track near Duffield depot, and secured about $900 from the mailbags. The collections made by his soldiers from passengers led General Lee to order an investigation.
On February 25th Maj.-Gen. John C. Breckinridge was assigned to command of the Trans-Alleghany or western department of Virginia. The organization of the army of Western Virginia[1] in April was as follows:
Echols' infantry brigade, Brig.-Gen. John Echols: Twenty-second, Col. George S. Patton; Twenty-third, Lieut.-Col. Clarence Derrick; Twenty-sixth battalion, Lieut.-Col. George M. Edgar; partisan rangers, Capt. Philip J. Thurmond; partisan rangers, Capt. William D. Thurmond; partisan rangers, Capt. John Amick; battery, Capt. George B. Chapman.
Jenkins' cavalry brigade, Brig.-Gen. Albert G. Jenkins: Fourteenth regiment, Col. Charles Cochrane; Sixteenth regiment, Maj. James H. Nounnan; Seventeenth, Col. William H. French; Twenty-second regiment, Col. Henry S. Bowen.
Saltville garrison, Col. William H. Browne: Forty-fifth infantry regiment, Lieut. -Col. Edwin H. Harman; Ten-
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- ↑ The infantry brigades of the army of Western Virginia constituted G. C. Wharton's division of Early's army of the Valley during the fall and winter of 1864-65, and suffered severely in the disaster of Waynesboro, March 2, 1865, which practically ended the career of the various commands, though a remnant of the division maintained its organization after the surrender at Appomattox.
