The blue-coated soldiers trudged uphill through the forest trying their best not to get snagged on the laurel branches or stumble over the tree roots. At the head of the column was a David Hart, a handsome 22-year-old guide whose father owned a farm at the summit of the mountain. The five-mile trek, which was supposed to take just three hours, had begun at dawn and dragged on into the afternoon. Just as the march started, the heavens opened up and a hard rain fell on the untried troops. They received some protection from the mature trees that bent over the trail.
The Midwesterners in the column had been mustered into service a short time before. Their commander was 35-year-old, West Point Class of 1846 graduate Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan. The general had assured President Abraham Lincoln and the members of the War Department in Washington that he would drive the “Secesh” in northwestern Virginia as far as Richmond if necessary. He was the hope and pride of the intensely loyal Unionists of the upper Ohio River Valley.
