From Camp Hall.
CAMP HALL, TROY, GILMER COUNTY,
January 1st, 1862.
January 7, 1862
Editors Intelligencer:
On Sunday morning, Dec. the 29th, 1861, company K, 1st Va. cavalry commanded by 2d Lieut. Dawson, was attacked by about 500 rebels of Floyd's army; supposed to be headed by Ben Haymond and John E. Hays. The cavalry company held their position under a steady fire, from 11 A. M. till 5 P. M., when they were obliged to beat a retreat for the want of ammunition, and being overpowered were afraid they would get surrounded, but previous to leaving the town, Lieut. Dawson set fire to the Commissary and Quarter Master's Department, before the rebels should have to say that they took it from the Union forces.
Lieut. Dawson and his men acted bravely and had it not have been for want of ammunition, they would never have given up the post.
The reason John E. Hays and Ben Haymond were supposed to be at the head of the rebels, is on account of their being seen in Bull Town on Friday, and was lurking all round the telegraph office and the store there, for four or five hours. At the same time, allow me to mention through the paper that the proprietor of the store is a most infernal rascal and deceiver, for when any Union forces are in Bull town, he is a Union man, and directly they are gone, he does nothing but curse them. Such a man as that, I think, ought to be put away.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: December 1861