Engagement at Romney

“Engagement at Romney, VA., twenty miles from New Creek, Tuesday, June 11th, 1861- the Eleventh Indiana Zouaves crossing the bridge over the Potomac, at double quick time, to attack the Confederate forces. On Tuesday, June 11th, 1861, Colonel Lewis Wallace, in command of the Eleventh Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Zouaves, stationed at Cumberland, Md., received orders to attack the Confederates assembled at Romney, the capital of Hampshire County, Va. He took six hundred men and left the same evening, reaching New Creek Bridge, twenty-eight miles by rail from Cumberland, at eleven o’clock P.M. Colonel Wallace reached the neighborhood of Romney about eight o’clock A.M., and was not surprised to find that the enemy had got the alarm, there having been time enough for horsemen to give warning. Picket guards had been placed on the eights commanding the road, at a distance of about one mile and a half from the town. These fired their pieces at the advance of the Zouaves, and as the fire was promptly and effectually returned, they immediately withdrew. The Zouaves entered Romney at half-past eight o’clock A.M., in time to partake of the breakfast which had been prepared for the “evacuates."” — Frank Leslie, 1896

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