64-74.] Nearly a month elapsed, when, having received reports that large forces of the enemy were gathered at Beverly, McClellan determined to proceed in person to that region with his best prepared troops, postponing his Kanawha campaign till northwestern Virginia should be cleared of the enemy.
Military affairs in West Virginia had been complicated by the political situation, and it is necessary to recollect the dates of the swift following steps in Virginia's progress into the Confederacy.

Sumter surrendered on Saturday, the 13th of April, and on Monday the 15th President Lincoln issued his first call for troops.

On Wednesday the 17th the Virginia Convention passed the Ordinance of Secession in secret session.

On Friday the 19th it was known in Washington, and on Saturday Lee and Johnston resigned their commissions in the United States Army, sorrowfully "going with their State." [Footnote: Johnston's Narrative, p.10.

Townsend's Anecdotes of the Civil War, p.31.