[Footnote: Report of Hill, Official Records, vol.ii.p.

224.] During the 12th Pegram's situation and movements were unknown.

He had intended, when he evacuated his camp, to follow the line of retreat taken by the detachment already near the mountain-top, but, in the darkness of the night and in the tangled woods and thickets of the mountain-side, his column got divided, and, with the rear portion of it, he wandered all day of the 12th, seeking to make his way to Garnett.

He halted at evening at the Tygart Valley River, six miles north of Beverly, and learned from some country people of Garnett's retreat.

It was still possible to reach the mountains east of the valley, but beyond lay a hundred miles of wilderness and half a dozen mountain ridges on which little, if any, food could be found for his men.