October 15, 1861
In recognition of the gallant conduct of his command, in the recent engagement in Western Virginia, Gen. Jackson has issued the following General Order:
CAMP BARTOW, GREENBRIER RIVER,
N. W. A., Oct. 5, 1861
GENERAL ORDER, No. 15:
The following will be read at evening parade, before each of the corps of that portion of the 1st Division of the army of Northwestern Virginia at Greenbrier river:
SOLDIERS: After a campaign to you of peculiar hardships, the enemy, descending from his mountain fastnesses, has afforded you the long-coveted opportunity of testing your efficiency in action. Confident in his greater numbers, his superior arms, and the comparative weakness of your position, he came, with his wagon trains, in anticipation of an easy victory, and a permanent enjoyment of its profits. But gallantly and well have you maintained your place in line with your brethren of the army of Northwestern Virginia--meeting his earlier advances with striking exhibitions of individual daring, receiving his concentrated fire for more than four hours with the coolness of veterans; and, then, when he supposed your spirit to be shaken, with a calm determination, indicating to him what his fate would be should he attempt to carry out further his original designs, have you repulsed his first efforts to charge and to break your lines.
Though you were not in force to pursue him and to realize the full fruits of your triumph, retreating, he left behind him the unmistakable evidences of his rout, in the bodies of his dead, too numerous to be carried with him, the abandonment of arms and accoutrements, even to the colours which, in the morning, he had flaunted so insolently in your front.
Soldiers! with pride, I congratulate you!
HENRY R. JACKSON,
Brigadier General Commanding.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: October 1861