Union Battle Summary

Romney, W.Va., June 13, 1861. 11th Indiana Infantry. Col. Lew Wallace, commanding the regiment, entered report under date of June 14, from Camp McGinnis, stating that he had learned of the impressing of Union men and other oppression of loyal citizens by several hundred rebel troops quartered at Romney. To disperse these troops he left Cumberland on the night of the 12th, with eight companies, about 500 men in all, and from New Creek Station marched over a fatiguing mountain route, arriving in the vicinity of Romney about 8 a.m. on the 13th. The chief obstacle in effecting entrance to the town was the crossing of a bridge over the south branch of the Potomac. The advance guard crossed the bridge on a run and was assaulted from a large house. The firing continued several minutes, when Wallace led a second company over the bridge and soon drove the enemy from the house mentioned. A battery stationed on a hill near fled when the Union troops appeared, and the town was entirely deserted by its inhabitants, except a "legion of negroes." A number of tents, some surgical stores, etc., were secured and Maj. Isaac Vandever was captured. After thoroughly searching the town Wallace returned to Cumberland. He says of this action: "My return was forced, owing to the fact that there was not a mile on the road that did not offer half a dozen positions for the ruin or rout of my regiment by a much smaller force."

Source: The Union Army, Volume 6, Cyclopedia of Battles, 1908