. A history of the Laurel brigade, originally the Ashby cavalry of the Army of northern Virginia and Chew's battery . the railroad at Cairo, Colonel Harman found the garrison at West Union toostrong to be dislodged, but feigning an attack with a partof his force, he diverted their attention, while with theremainder he succeeded in burning the bridges east andwest of the town and capturing nineteen prisoners. At Cairo General Jones gained an easy victory. Thegarrison of twenty-one men surrendered without firing agun. The fruits of the victory hardly paid for the trouble ofgaining it, the cavalr
. A history of the Laurel brigade, originally the Ashby cavalry of the Army of northern Virginia and Chew's battery . the railroad at Cairo, Colonel Harman found the garrison at West Union toostrong to be dislodged, but feigning an attack with a partof his force, he diverted their attention, while with theremainder he succeeded in burning the bridges east andwest of the town and capturing nineteen prisoners. At Cairo General Jones gained an easy victory. Thegarrison of twenty-one men surrendered without firing agun. The fruits of the victory hardly paid for the trouble ofgaining it, the cavalry, already well jaded, having marchedeighty miles without unsaddling. The command now moved on Oil Town, and the workdone there made a lasting impression upon those engagedin it. The oil wells were owned mainly by Southern men whohad been driven from their homes and their property appro-priated by the Federal Government or by Northern men.^This, it appears, was the chief reason for destroying theworks. All the oil tanks, barrels, engines for pumping,engine-houses, wagons, etc., were burned.^General Jones COL. RICHARD H. DULANY A History of the Laurel Brigade 129 The boats filled with oil in bulk burst with a reportalmost equal to artillery and spread the burning fluid overthe river. Flowing- over the surface of the meandering streams thatled to the river the fiery wave rolled on with the as far as the eye could reach the river was on fire,sending up dense columns of black smoke that by contrastincreased the brightness of the conflagration. General Jones had strict orders from General Lee torespect private property. He did all he could to have theseorders obeyed by the troops and never overlooked a violationof them even when circumstances greatly palliated the was hardly to be expected that men traveling through ahostile country, themselves and horses at times almoststarved, would wait for permission from the properauthority to gratify their pressing
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