Tuesday, July 10, 2012

1862 July 8 Pack's Ferry, Va.

  [from the diary of Charles Hay of the 23rd Ohio]

 Pack’s Ferry, Va., July 8th, 1862.
     One of the horses attached to the ambulance
in which I was yesterday riding, having
suddenly taken sick after we had stopped
last evening, and died in the night, I
was obliged to trudge my way from Jumping
Branch here this morning, distance seven
miles, over a very good road, but really
a hot, sultry morning.  This Ferry is one
of the principal ones across New River,
and is named after Mr. Pack, who first
 established a crossing here many years
ago.  When Floyd retreated from Cotton
Mountain last November, he diverged from
the main road at Shady Springs, and
crossed the river at this place, which
is about 200 yards wide, and deeper
and less rapid than in most places.
A prominent characteristic of this stream
is its rapid flow, the numerous rocks
roughly strewn over the bed of the stream,
and rising in many places above the surface,
and its transparent, clear, pure waters.

Since our troops have occupied this
point, they have opened up communication
with Monroe county, on the opposite
shore, by means of a ferry=boat which     
is propelled across the stream by the
action of the current against its side
while laying diagonally against the
current.  Being fastened by a rope some
distance up the stream, it, of course,
does not descend, only to describe the
arc of a circle.  The boat was built
by tow companies of the 11th O. V. sent
here from Raleigh for that purpose.
     The rebels are encamped somewhere in
Monroe County in some force.  Col. Crook,               
36th O.V. commanding 3rd Brigade of this Division,
encamped at Meadow Bluffs, Greenbrier Co.,
can prevent the commission of any depredations
the enemy might contemplate on Gauly or
the Kanawha River. – Parties of the companies
here, frequently make excursions into Monroe
and Greenbrier, and usually bring in
prisoners, and sometimes property.


The valley of New River the farther down
you get, becomes, narrower, and towards its
mouth, there is room only between the steep,
mountainous banks on either side to allow a
channel for the stream.  Opposite where I now
am, and a little below on this side is a ^’are’
narrow strips of level land, between the hill and
river bank, which are very fertile, and well
adapted to corn.
                         
[transcript by Mary Roy Dawson Edwards]

MSS 13925

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