Series I, Volume 29, part 2, p. 556.
Cumberland, Md., December 11, 1863.
(Received 11.30 a.m.)
Brig. Gen. G. W. Cullum,
Chief of Staff:
I transmit the following telegram from Colonel Comly for the information of the General-in-Chief:
Charleston, W. Va.,
December 10, 1863.
Captain Melvin,
Assistant Adjutant-General:
Captain Witcher, Third [West] Virginia Cavalry, with 50 men, has just returned from a scout through Wayne, Logan, and Boone Counties, bringing as prisoners 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 1 quartermaster sergeant, and 14 men., and 30 pieces small-arms, having traveled 150 miles in three days, and returning without loss or injury to men. Lost 3 horses and equipments. Captain Witcher reports a considerable force organizing in the region of Abington for a raid in Kanawha Valley or Barboursville. He heard of the Lewisburg advance from prisoners captured, who informed him that a large force which had been on the way to join Longstreet was now returning to re-enforce Lewisburg. He reports plenty of grain and large quantities of fat cattle and hogs in Logan; says he could march 10,000 men through. Their roads good. The prisoners captured represent the following commands: Beckley's battalion, Fourteenth [Virginia Cavalry], Twenty-second [Virginia Cavalry], Twenty-sixth [Battalion Virginia Infantry], Thirty-fourth [Battalion Virginia Cavalry], Thirty-sixth [Battalian [sic] Virginia Cavalry], and Eighth Virginia Cavalry; Markhead's [?] battalion Kentucky cavalry and First Virginia State Line. General Scammon left Gauley last night.
James M. Comly,
Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding
I have no idea that the force reported to be concentrating at Abingdon contemplates an offensive movement into the Kanawha Valley.
B. F. Kelley,
Brigadier-General.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: December 1863