Ironton Register 26 April 1888 – Going up on the steamer Bostona, last week, we fell into conversation with John Means, of Ashland, who happened to remark:
“There stands Gen. McCausland.”
“A cold chill began to creep along our spinal cord, but instantly remembering the war was over, and the ‘Narrow Escapes’ were only tales that are told, the paralysis was arrested, and we looked and saw a man of little more than usual size, dressed in a short sack coat, black pantaloons, a big Derby hat that nearly covered his short, stubby, gray hair, a fair face, curling mustache thru the aquiline nose and small twinkling blue eyes.
He really looked a little rough, as if the fortunes of this world were not serving him well. Mr. Means called him up and gave us an introduction. We soon found he was a very affable and intelligent gentleman, but declined to talk about the war, which however did not prevent us from drawing out considerable that was interesting.
“Speaking of the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain, he said that it was a very fierce little fight and that his side lost about 300 killed and wounded. Gen. Jenkins commanded there and only intended to give our forces a check until Jones and Morgan came up from Saltville. The word “check” was a favorite military term with the general. His entire service in West Virginia was intended to check the advance of the Union forces.
It seems that the check was not sufficient to enable Gens. Jones and Morgan to get up, but a few minutes longer would have made the situation different. Jones’s advance guard was in sight just as our forces reached the railroad and Jenkins’s army had turned up the railroad to the New River Bridge.
In fact, the man in the lead of the advance guard was killed while trying to pass around and get communication with Gen. Jenkins. Had Crook been held back half an hour longer he would have been driven back, for Jenkins, Jones, and Morgan’s commanders would have been equal to the task.
“In reply to a question concerning Gen. Jenkins’ wound, Gen. McCausland said “the wound was not necessarily a fatal one. He was shot in the arm, and it had to be cut off, which was done by surgeon Graham of the 91st Ohio. The surgeon did his work well, but the nursing afterward was careless and one of the cords that tied an artery became loose and the general bled to death.
The photo at left is of Gen. McCausland.
“The object of that raid of Gen. Crook was not to burn Newbern Bridge – it was the start to Lynchburg. Gen. Sigel was coming down the Shenandoah Valley, and it was his design to meet Crook at Salem, where, together, they would move on to Lynchburg. Sigel was defeated at New Market by Gen. Breckenridge, and the expedition was then abandoned for the time being.
Crook retreated to Kanawha to recuperate, and then Hunter was appointed to succeed Sigel. He came down the valley again and Crook crossed over to Staunton to meet him.”
“Who was in front of Crook on that march to Staunton?” we asked.
“I was,” said McCausland, “I had about 2,000 men but didn’t attempt to make a stand at any place except Panther Gap, and then Crook flanked me, and I had to go.”
“Where were you at the Lexington fight?” we asked.
“I commanded there,” he said, “and while the fighting was going on, I was in a tower of the Virginia Military Institute, watching the affair through a field glass, and giving orders from that place.”
“Well general, we could have taken Lynchburg, couldn’t we?” we asked.
“No, he replied, “but you could put up a better fight than you did. We were all astonished that Hunter was so timid. He could have gone around Lynchburg and joined Sheridan. That ought to have been the program.
He could have gone right over the road that Lee finally retreated on, without running any serious risks, and menaced Richmond from the rear. It would have been a bold, aggressive movement. As it was, the whole Lynchburg campaign was a mistake.
“While you were at Salem,” said he, “on the retreat, I rode all around you and could have captured a regiment or two, but my superiors wouldn’t let me. I had to content myself with making that dash on the wagon train and artillery the next morning.”
At this point, Mark King of the old 2nd West Virginia Cavalry passed by where we were talking, and we hauled him up to introduce him to Gen. McCausland. When we spoke the formal words, Mark looked at the general doubtfully and wonderingly for a moment and then asked – “Is this the general that gave us so much trouble in West Virginia?”
We said it was. Mark then looked at him closely again, and said, “General, I’m glad to see you,” at the same time extending his hand, and they shook.
“Did you ever see me before?” asked Mark, looking up at him and eyeing him closely.
“I don’t know,” said the General, there is something familiar, but I can’t place you.”
“Well, I’ll tell you General,” said Mark, “you remember when you captured the block house at 8-Mile, you took one of the prisoners and questioned him about where the union troops were and how many there were?”
“Yes,” said McCausland.
“And how the fellow told you a pack of lies about the number and position of our troops.”
“Yes,” added the General.
“And how just then someone came with a message from Capt. Thorman, to release him so he could take Dick Barron, who was badly wounded, back through our lines?”
“Yes, I recollect,” said the General.
“And how you turned to him and said, ‘You have told so many lies about the troops, I guess I’ll send you to Richmond,’ and how we went?”
“Yes,” answered the General smiling.
“Well, sir, I am the very boy,” and looking curiously at the General a minute Mark resumed, “Pon my word, General I’m glad to see you. Do you remember the time we captured you?”
The General laughed and said, “yes, I know it.”
And we let you go,” Mark went on to say, and then turning to explain to the listeners standing by, narrated the expedition which Major McMahan [sic] had given in a narrow escape printed in the Register last year – how one hundred men disguised themselves as rebs and went into the reb lines.
During this excursion, they came up with Gen. McCausland who was riding from one of his commands to another. Gen. McCausland rode along with Major McMahon some distance, and then left him apparently with the impression that he had been deceived, but as General said, “I found you out pretty soon, but, of course, had to play possum in order to get away.”
Long and pleasant was the talk with the General, in which Col. Weddle, Brady Steece, and others engaged. As a final word, he said, “You are going to a political convention. Let me give you a suggestion. Every congressional convention in the Ohio Valley should recommend the improvement of the Ohio River. This is a matter on which we all should agree.”
Son of Southern General Arrested
The Marion Star, Marion, Ohio, 21 May 1935 – Point Pleasant, WV – May 21 The son of Gen. John McCausland, famed leader of Confederate Cavalry forces, was held today during the investigation of a slaying.
He is Sam McCausland, owner of large tracts of farmland inherited from his father who led raiding bands during the Civil War throughout western Virginia and western Pennsylvania.
McCausland was arrested by Mason County officers after Howard West, 45, a tenant on a farm owned by McCausland, was shot to death. Officers said the men had quarreled about a gun once carried by Gen. McCausland.
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