Nearing the steamer, he stood up and excitedly shouted that a general engagement had begun.
We laughingly told him it couldn't be very general till we got in, and we moved on, keeping a sharp outlook for our parties on either bank.

When we came up to them, we learned that a party of horsemen had appeared on the southern side of the river and had opened a skirmishing fire, but had scampered off as if the Old Nick were after them when a shell from the rifled gun was sent over their heads.

The shell, like a good many that were made in those days, did not explode, and the simple people of the vicinity who had heard its long-continued scream told our men some days after that they thought it was "going yet." From this time some show of resistance was made by the enemy, and the skirmishing somewhat retarded the movement.

Still, about ten miles was made each day till the evening of the 16th, when we encamped at the mouth of the Pocotaligo, a large creek which enters the Kanawha from the north.

[Footnote: Official Records, vol.li.
pt.i.p.