from Moorefield, Hardy County. The Riflemen were organized before the war, and were well equipped. The other two companies came there with nothing but their uniforms, but were given old, altered muskets and old flintlock rifles that had been sent there from Harper's Perry, and two four-pound cannon that had been sent there during the John Brown raid, but had no one to use them. They had a few rounds of ammunition in their coat pockets; no tents, cartridge boxes, or any other equipment.
In order that the reader may more fully understand the organization of the Southern army, I will explain:
The maximum number of a company was one hundred men, commanded by a Captain and three Lieutenants, commissioned officers; then there were Sergeants and Corporals, non-commissioned officers, appointed by the Captain.
A regiment was composed of ten companies, making one thousand men. Sometimes there were less, and often a regiment was reduced to two or three hundred able for service.
The field officers of a regiment were a Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel and Major. Two or more regiments composed a brigade, generally four or five regiments—sometimes more, sometimes less, according to circumstances—and commanded by a Brigadier General.
Two or more brigades (generally four) composed a division, commanded by a Major General; two or more divisions (generally three) composed an army corps, commanded by a Lieutenant General, who was styled a full General. General R. E. Lee ranked as such. There were five full Generals in the Southern army.
Several companies banded together—less than ten—was called a battalion, and commanded by a Major. Two companies of cavalry formed a squadron. A company of artillery had four or six cannon, generally four, and one piece was called a section; going into action and unlimbering ready for business was called going into battery.
The Federals were camped at New Creek, about twenty miles from Romney, and sent a regiment over one morning to capture the whole outfit, and they would have succeeded had it not been for a citizen on the road coming a near way
