Shortly after the war started in June 1861, a wild rumor started in Monroe County that 1500 Yankees were on their way from Meadow Bluff by way of Alderson’s Ferry to Union, burning, pillaging and killing. The local guardsmen in the Union section mustered to repel the invaders at Alderson’s Ferry. They were joined by an aroused citizenry armed with every imaginable weapon including pitchforks and corn cutters. This picturesque throng got almost to Alderson’s Ferry where they were met by Colonel Ellis, who had investigated the rumor. He told them there was not a Yankee soldier within a hundred miles. Then James Miller addressed the soldiers thanking them for their promptness in mustering to meet the enemy. Everybody went home.

The Reverend S. R. Huston of Union kept a, sketchy diary of the war years published in Morton’s Monroe History. What this area endured during the time was terrible. Typhoid fever in October 1861 was killing soldiers in camps of both North and South at Meadow Bluff, Huntersville, and Lewisburg. By May 1862 Federal troops had control of Greenbrier County and guarded all ferries of the Greenbrier. On June 22, 1862, 1600 Federal troops crossed the river at Alderson’s Ferry going into Monroe. As this was but the number for one day of the war, Alderson’s Ferry must have seen large numbers of soldiers cross and re-cross the river. In May 1864, Federal troops took Union, and the Reverend Huston recounted that the en- tire countryside was ravaged by 10,000 hungry troops eating any- thing edible. Troops on both sides frequently lived off the land, and this writer remembers the stories told by his grandfather, who was a young boy living on Wolf Creek, of how soldiers of both sides ate everything they could find, killed cattle, took horses, and pillaged his father’s store. The troops of the Confederacy were as bad as the Yankees although he had two brothers in the Confederate Army.

The Monroe County records of that time included in Morton’s Monroe History furnish revealing information. By 1862 Monroe and Greenbrier Counties were under martial law. Paper Confederate currency was being issued for silver. Direct relief of destitute families whose fathers and sons were in the Confederacy was necessary. Salt was very scarce and Monroe County was sending to Kanawha and rationing it. A disastrous drought ruined crops in 1862. In 1863, the population was in desperate need of clothing and Monroe County was buying cotton from North Carolina and rationing it at about cost to each family. By 1864 this entire section was suffering from every sort of misery — hunger, disease, lack of clothing, crop failure, and the lack of even simple every day needs. The county was desperately trying to feed the hungry. Commissioners in each District were searching for hidden food hoarded by some and the Sheriff would impress any provisions found.

In 1885 the U. S. Government published the official history of the Civil War. It is a huge work called W dr of the Rebellion, Official Records of Union and Confederate Armies, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1885. Following are the exact records of all military activity recorded that occurred in the vicinity of Alderson's Ferry. They are reports of Federal Officers.

June 6, 1862 — Skirmish at Muddy Creek, W. Va.:

Report of Major John J. Hoffman, Second West Virginia Cavalry to Col. George Crook, Commanding Brigade:

Camp Meadow Bluff, W. Va. June 9, 1862

"Colonel: In obedience to your order of the 8th I took with me Captains Powell, Dove and Behan, of the Second Battalion, Second Virginia Cavalry, and traveled in the direction of Alderson’s Ferry via Blue Sulphur. When within about 2 1\2 miles from the ferry and 1 1\2 miles from the small village of Palestine I found a squad of 14 men belonging to the Greenbrier and Whites Cavalry dismounted and standing picket under the command of First Lieutenant Hawver of the Greenbrier Cavalry. They retreated to the woods, and I pursued them through the woods and fields about 1 1\2 miles to Muddy Creek. Here 1 man (McClung) surrendered, and in crossing the stream we killed 2 who fell in the stream and floated down.

"The creek was deep, the bottom covered with loose stones, and the current swift, and we were delayed some time in crossing.

"After crossing we killed Lieutenant Hawver, whose body we left in charge of one Baker (citizen) and captured 1 prisoner, (Groves from Lewisburg). We took 2 double-barreled shot guns. The picket had left their horses across the river, at the ferry, with a guard. The river was too deep and rapid to ford, and having no boats we were unable to get at them. 

"There are no boats at this ferry, nor at any of the crossings above or below that I could hear of. I did not go to Haynes Ferry, about 8 miles below, and a rough road. I learned that near Haynes’ Ferry there was a road leading on to Lick Creek and from there across to the Gauley Road, near the top of Little Sewell. None of my command were hurt, and both officers and men are entitled to credit for the promptness and zeal with which they executed their orders. Two horses of Captain Powell’s Com- pany died of fatigue. Four miles beyond Blue Sulphur there is a large quantity of hay, but no grain that I could find. From Blue Sulphur to the ferry the road, with the exception of a few slips, is tolerably good, and on this side of the Springs there is a very large slip on the mountain side.
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