129.] Floyd's position was now about two miles distant, and, waiting only for his column to close up, he again pressed forward.

General Benham's brigade was in front, and soon met the enemy's pickets.

Getting the impression that Floyd was in retreat, Benham pressed forward rather rashly, deploying to the left and coming under a sharp fire from the right of the enemy's works.

Floyd had intrenched a line across a bend of the Gauley River, where the road from Cross Lanes to Lewisburg finds its way down the cliffs to Carnifex Ferry.

His flanks rested upon precipices rising abruptly from the water's edge, and he also intrenched some rising ground in front of his principal line.