Capturing Spencer

Capturing Spencer. Surrender by Trickery. (preface) Confederate Gen. Albert G. Jenkins led 550 cavalrymen on a 500-mile raid from Salt Sulphur Springs, Aug. 22-Sept. 12, 1862, attacking Federal forces and destroying military stores. He captured and paroled 300 Union soldiers, killed or wounded 1,000 others, destroyed about 5,000 small arms, and seized funds from a U.S. paymaster. At Ravenswood, he forded the Ohio River and raised the Confederate flag in Ohio on Sept. 4. He captured Racine, recrossed the river, and ended the raid at Red House on the Kanawha River., On September 1, 1862, Confederate Gen. Albert G. Jenkins and his cavalrymen stopped just east of Spencer, which Union Col. John C. Rathbone and the 11th West Virginia Infantry occupied. The next morning, Jenkins deployed his forces on present-day Alvord and Goff Hills, with the dismounted riders standing between the horses and forming a long line to convince the Federals that they faced an overwhelming force. Jenkins then sent Maj. James W. Sweeney with a flag of truce to demand Rathbone's surrender. 'Rathbone summoned his officers to a council of war and, despite their desire to fight, was inclined to capitulate. He sent Maj. George C. Trimble, later alleged to be a friend of Sweeney, with the Confederate major to confirm the strength of Jenkins's force. After Trimble returned and urged Rathbone to yield, he surrendered without firing a shot., Despite being "surrounded,” however, some Federals easily escaped, and a courier rode to Ravenswood, about forty miles away, without being caught. Jenkins paroled his captives and reported that he "got some fine arms, which we were compelled to destroy.” The next morning, September 3, the raiders rode on to Ripley. , (sidebar) In December 1862, after a court of inquiry investigated the surrender, Gen. Jacob D. Cox, commanding the District of West Virginia, declared that "the whole affair was a burlesque upon military operations, without one redeeming feature. From the receipt of the news of Jenkins' approach in the morning to the receipt of the grossly exaggerated panic-making report of the major in the evening, the reverse of soldierly conduct is proven to have prevailed.” On January 6, 1863, Rathbone and Trimble were, "by direction of the President, dismissed the service ... for cowardly conduct in surrendering their command.” After the war, however, President Andrew Johnson revoked Rathbone's dismissal and ordered Trimble honorably discharged., (captions) , Gen. Albert G. Jenkins Courtesy Library of Congress, Maj. George C. Trimble Courtesy Linda Fluharty, Jenkins's Raid in West Virginia and Ohio, August-September 1862