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one. He was given the command in early August and immediately began plans to move against the Federals.
While Lee was making plans to recoup the Confederate position in northwestern Virginia, events were building to the south that would directly affect Private Baxter, Company E, and the rest of the 20th Mississippi Regiment. On August 11, a few days before the 20th left Iuka for Lynchburg, a new general officer took over the Confederate forces in the Kanawha Valley. He was Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd, former Secretary of War under President James Buchanan, and like Wise, an ex-governor of Virginia. Neither Floyd nor Wise was experienced as a commander, and each carried a burden of pride and ambition that precluded any cooperation. Their lack of cooperation went straight to the Federals? advantage. Floyd was senior to Wise, so named in orders, but the latter, for all practical purposes, never acknowledged it.
Late in August Floyd moved his troops toward Gauley Bridge where Cox was headquartered. Wise followed reluctantly. On August 26 Floyd?s command ran unexpectantly unto the 7th Ohio and routed the Federals. Encouraged, he moved across the Gauley River at Carnifix and set up a position.
There on September 10, he was attacked by Federals under Brig. Gen. William S. Rosecrans who had moved down from the north to reinforce Cox. Floyd beat off a series of attacks that afternoon, but in the night he took his troops back over the river. He rejoined Wise, and bickering all the way, the two got back to Big Sewell Mountain, some 25 miles west of Lewisburg.
Meanwhile to the north, Lee?s elaborate battle plan to defeat the Federals at Cheat Mountain went badly from^the start. Too much accurate coordination was demanded Jtfrom five separate Confederate columns. Finally, on September 15, Lee realized the futility of further action and pulled his troops back.
Farther south in the Kanawha Valley it became apparent that the Federals were about to move on the Confederate position west of Lewisburg. Wise had dug in atop Little Sewell Mountain, separated by a deep gorge from Big Sewell Mountain. He refused to join Floyd who had retreated twelve miles east to Meadow
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