Capture of Gen. Scammon on the Ohio River, Feb. 2, 1864

16thVA

First Sergeant
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Dec 8, 2008
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Philadelphia
Eliakim P. Scammon (1816-1894, a native of Maine, a veteran of the Mexican was appointed colonel of the 23rd Ohio by Gov. Dennison. He was made a brigadier general in 1862 and given the command of the Kanawha Valley in western Virginia.

He was something of a martinet and not well liked by his men. T. Harry Williams wrote (Hayes of the 23rd)-

"He was fussy about everything and especially detail. Hayes at first acquaintance measured him as being irritating but interesting, intelligent and educated but lacking in "vigor of nerve", and on the whole not fitted for volunteer command. Later Hayes and other critics would have cause to revise their judgements somewhat. For all his faults, Scammon knew his trade thoroughly, and he put the regiment on a rigorous routine of training that transformed it from a raw mass into a disciplined outfit. And in battle he shed his nervous excitability and became a cool and courageous leader."

On Feb. 2 1864, Scammon had gone to Point Pleasant in Mason County along with two of his aides. Anxious to return to Charleston immediately after completing his meeting he ordered the captain of the "B.C. Levi" to take him back. It was late at night and the captain told him it wasn't a good idea, as the area swarmed with rebel partisans. According to the Point Pleasant Register, Feb. 11, 1864-

"On Tuesday evening the 2d inst., the Government steamer B. C. Levi, with Brigadier-General Scammon, several members of his staff and about 40 re-enlisted soldiers on board, left this place for Charleston. After proceeding up the river to Red House, the night being dark and stormy, she there laid up. - A short time before day light, Wednesday morning, a Lieutenant and nine or ten men, crossed the river at Winfield, going a short ways above the Levi, and came down on the Red House side, and boarded her, the Lieutenant proceeding to the cabin and demanding an unconditional surrender, stating that he had ample forces to back him. Some of the soldiers were lying on the floor of the cabin, mostly armed - some with guns and some with revolvers - and they were surrendered by General Scammon without the firing of a gun. The force on board the boat was sufficient to have prevented its capture, had Gen. Scammon showed any disposition to fight. - After parolling the men and one or two officers, they forced the pilot to take the boat across the river to Winfield, they then took on-board Maj. Nowning [Nounnan of the 16th Va. Cav.] with the remainder of his force - numbering in all fifty men - and then proceeded down the river to Vintroux's landing, and after taking everything that was of use to them from the boat, they set her on fire. As soon as the boat began to burn, they retreated by way of Hurricane bridge, mounting Gen. Scammon on a miserable old white horse, without either saddle or bridle. The crew of the boat were not molested."

Harry T. Williams writes "[Rutherford B.] Hayes could feel sorry for Scammon. But like so many officers who had to serve under the general, he could not resist a sardonic though guarded laugh. He reveled his reactions in a letter to Uncle Sardis: 'I must be cautious in what I say, but to you I can write that his capture is the greatest joke of the war. It was sheer carelessness, bad luck and accident. It took a good many chances, all lost, to bring it about. Everybody laughs when he is alone. And very intimate friends laugh in concert when together. General S's great point was his caution. He bored us all terribly with his extreme vigilance. The greatest military crime in his eyes was a surprise. Here he is caught in the greatest and most inexcusable way.' "

George Crook would be appointed to take over his command.

The Gallipolis [Ohio] Journal on Feb. 18 wrote: "With the commanding General of the Department and his Quarter Master, in Libby Prison, captured by rebels within 35 miles of Gallipolis-a government steamer burned at the same time, it might seem to an unpracticed eye that the State of West Virginia was not so intensely loyal as ome persons wish it to be considered. The fact is that region of country is just as well stocked with rebels both armed and unarmed as any other portion of the South."

General Scammon was reassigned after his exchange to a command along the South Carolina coast, where he was captured again.

 
Last edited:
Fourth paragraph says Scammon was captured on Feb. 2, 1862, but that the Point Pleasant Register didn't report the fact until two years later, Feb. 11, 1864.
 
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