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SKIRMISH AT POINT PLEASANT.

   On the 29th of March, 1863, General Jenkins, with a brigade of troops, established a blockade on the Kanawha river, for the purpose of capturing to steamer Victor No. 2, in command of Captain Fred. Ford, on which was Paymaster B. R. Cowen, with a large supply of government funds.  After a severe encounter, the boat eluded the enemy and found its way to Point Pleasant, which was then occupied by a company of Union troops, under command of Captain J. D. Carter.  Captain Ford reported the approach of the enemy, and and Captain C. made the best preparation that he could, with his small force, to receive them, occupying the court house.
     On the 30th, the Confederates entered the town the took possession it, as little opposition could be offered them, the Union troops still occupying the court house, from which they were not dislodged.  An attempt was at once made to obtain possession of the wharf-boat, where were stowed an immense amount of government supplies, but Captain Ford ran his boat in, and, under a heavy fire from the enemy, succeeded in detaching it and towing it safely to Gallipolis.  Here he obtained a battery of guns from the steamer General Meigs, and, with what reinforcements he could hastily obtain, returned to the assistance of Carter.  The Gallia and Trumbull Guards, under command of Captain James Harper, marched up the river and were ferried across to Point Pleasant, but as they entered the town, the enemy were fleeing over the hills.  A number of the citizens of Gallipolis accompanied the Guards.  The artillery opened fire upon the enemy from the boat, and, with the assistance of the land forces, succeeded in soon driving them from their position.  In their retreat, they left behind them twenty-four of their number as prisoners.  The steamer, after the battle, was found to be completely riddled with bullets, and its appearance spoke eloquently of the severity of the strife and the courage of those participating in it.  Thus was Gallipolis saved from capture and probable pillage, and a general raid throughout the State prevented by the prompt action of a few courageous men.
     Colonel A. G. Jenkins was killed in a skirmish at Cloyd Mountain, by the 9th West Virginia Infantry in command of Colonel I. A. Duval, May 9th, 1864.

MORGAN'S RAID

     John Morgan and his "merry men" paid Gallia county a visit while on their raiding expedition through the State in 1863.  July 23d, of that year, they came through Raccoon township, thence across Huntington, Morgan and Cheshire townships to the Ohio river, where an attempt was made to cross, but seeing a tow-boat lying above Eight Mile Island, and supposing it to be a gunboat, the raiders turned down the river, and were overtaken by Union forces who were in pursuit of them.   Over two hundred of their number were captured in the upper end of Addision township.  Morgan, with the main body of his troops, passed up Campaign creek, through Addision, Morgan and Huntington townships, going through Ewington early in the morning of the 24th, where he captured a company of militia from Portsmouth and took their ammunition, which at that time he was badly in need of.  After obtaining this, the prisoners were released and he proceeded rapidly north, by a circuitous route, until he reached Columbiana county, where he was captured by Union forces in command of Major Way.  Morgan was confined in the Ohio penitentiary, from which he escaped by tunneling out, and was subsequently killed in Tennessee.
     On his first body of his troops passed through Vinton, where a large number took supper, paying for the same with goods taken from the various stores.  On leaving this village, they burned the bridge over Raccoon creek.  This includes the principal damage done in the county.  They made a great number of horse trades, invariably obtaining the best of the bargain.  The horses they left were afterward gathered up by the government officials.  The horses they left were afterward gathered up by government officials.  By this means, the farming community, who were forced into the trade, were readily enabled to compute their profits in the transaction, as the government agents did not go through the formality of leaving anything in place of them.
     Upon the approach of Morgan, the militia from all parts was called to Gallipolis, where a vast amount of quartermaster and commissary goods were stored, and which it was thought he would undertake to destroy.  It was astonishing with what alacrity the call was responded to.  Before Morgan set foot in the country, nearly all the men and boys capable of bearing arms reported for duty, in command of their newly elected officers, who were ready and willing to throw themselves into the breach.  At the time, there were several officers in Gallipolis, who had seen service in the field, and they were assigned to duty.  By the time the men would have been needed, they were sufficiently well drilled for all practical purposes, and would doubtless have given Morgan a warm reception.  There is no event in the history of our country which so fully and practically illustrates its vast resources and the patriotism of its people, as that of the Morgan Raid through Southern Ohio.
     After Morgan had left the county, those of his troops that had been captured, numbering two hundred and nine, were sent to Cincinnati on the steamer Bertha.  The companies of Captains Meikle and Clark, numbering eighty to one hundred men, were detailed as guard, under command of Alexander Vance, an ex-army officer.  In the passage down the river, when the boat would pass near the Kentucky shore, the temptation was strong among the prisoners to attempt an escape.  The water was low, and at Portsmouth the boat was obliged to lay to on account of fog.  While here, three more Morgan men were taken prisoners and placed with the other.  Arriving at Cincinnati at three o'clock P.M., the landing of the prisoners was delayed until the next day, and the boat was anchored in the middle of the stream.  During the night one man escaped by climbing through the wheel and swimming to the Kentucky shore, where he was recaptured, and one was drowned in making the attempt.  The balance - 211 in all - were turned over to United States officials at Cincinnati.
     It is impossible to give a full account of the adventures of Morgan and his men in Gallia county in a brief space.  Some of the details will be found among the personal histories of the county, herein published.  Many of them were encountered in detached squads, a number gave themselves up, and some escaped by crossing the river.  Citizens of the county were pressed in as guides to conduct them to the Ohio river.  A squad of them entered Crown City, where several were killed and a number drowned in attempting to cross. 

GALLIA COUNTY AND VIRGINIA.

     There is probably no point upon the Ohio river, from Pittsburg to Cairo, where the intercourse of the inhabitants upon both sides of the stream - the dividing line between slavery and freedom - had been so free and friendly as between Gallia county and the opposite territory in Virginia, before the breaking out of hostilities in the war of the rebellion.  There were close ties of kinship, as well as friendship, extensive business connections, and all those elements existed which tend, in the greatest degree, to draw communities together by the closest bonds of fraternity.  For this reason the difference which grew up between them at this time, (when each was obliged to take a decided stand upon the important issues then agitating the country,) rendered the antagonistic feeling between individuals on opposite sides all the more bitter.  Yet much of this friendly feeling existed during the entire war, and when it closed, to the great relief of all, they were prepared, with few individual exceptions, to return to their old allegiance to each other and to-day the warmest hearted fraternity exists between them, even in a greater degree than ever before.
     It has been impossible to ascertain the names of the various commands in which the men of Gallia county served.  Many of them enlisted in Virginia and Kentucky, as well as Ohio regiments, and all branches of the service were represented.  Many individual cases might be mentioned of men and regiments, in which the county was largely represented, that rendered signal service to their country, to which a volume out to be especially devoted.  The recors show that Gallia county responded promptly to all calls for troops; she furnished as many men as any county in the State, in proportion to population, and the conduct of her soldiers, upon the battle-fields of the war, was unsurpassed for bravery and devotion to country.

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