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AMICK'S INDEPENDENT SCOUTS
Captain John Walker Amick
Also known as
Company A, Amick's Company of Scouts, Thurmond's Battalion Partisan Rangers,
44th Virginia Cavalry Battalion, Hounshell's Battalion Virginia Cavalry Partisan Rangers,
Amick's Partisan Rangers |
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History of Company A |
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Amick's Rangers: A Family In the Fight
By
amickranger |
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The war in western Virginia came quickly because of the vital transportation routes though the mountains, two major railroads, as well as two turnpikes; the Parkersburg and Staunton Turnpike through the center of the mountains, and the James River and Kanawha Turnpike (Lewisburg Turnpike) from the Shenandoah and Greenbrier over Sewell Mountain into the Kanawha Valley and Charleston. It was known as the "Old Saltpetre Route" for the numerous nitre deposits in the mountain caves. |
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The Amick families homesteaded along the Lewisburg Turnpike near Sewell Mountain and throughout the Wilderness District. Amick homesteads and mills dotted the Wilderness District of the Meadow River, from Fowler's Knob and Angling Creek at Runa and Liberty over to Anthony Creek, Greenbrier. And also from Mountain Cove and Hawks Nest up to Ravens Eye near Sewell Mountain, connected to each other by a network of family built trails and wagon paths, known as the “Wilderness Road”.
In July of 1861, two invading yankee armies were on a collision course to the Wilderness Road. General McClellan was leading an army from the north, and Amicks had already scouted his movements for General Garnett at Rich Mountain. The first battle of the war had just happened in June at Philippi. General Jacob Cox with his Ohio yankees were invading from the west, coming up the Kanawha Valley. Amicks also joined the resistance at Charleston to meet this second threat. General Wise retreated to Lewisburg, but the Amicks stayed to protect their mountain homesteads. Armed only with our home-crafted Greenbrier squirrel rifles and sawed-off shotguns, the Amicks watched for the advancing armies from the Hawks Nest. |
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Bushwhackers On the Gauley |
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The Amicks served as scouts for General Wise when Robert E. Lee arrived from Richmond to settle the quarrels between General Wise and General Floyd, each commanding a Confederate brigade. With two Union armies raiding the countryside and two quarrelling generals to referee, General Lee's hair turned white while at his camp at Sewell Mountain and he met his companion "Traveller". |
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Yankees surrounded the home of John Amick and began shooting. As "Big John" leaped through the back door to escape, he was shot, as a warning to his family.
As the shots of Big John's death thundered through our mountain homes, the Amick kin, with our in-laws McClungs, Propst, Walkers, and McCutchans, and our neighbors the Tyrees, Halsteads, and Thurmonds, mobilized from all directions to protect their families from the two yankee armies, now on our front door steps.
John Walker Amick ("Little John") emerged as our family feud leader, and became a captain of partisan rangers. ("Captain John")
As one Ohio soldier later lamented, "Those mountains are full of Thurmonds, Aymecks, and Tyrees. And the Aymecks the most murderous of them all."
......Now, our family was in the fight.......
Con't next page |
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James A. Amick, Chief of Scouts for General R. E. Lee
Posted Sentinels at the Hawks Nest, September, 1861. |
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Continued on Page Two click here |
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