Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/335

of Wilson's Creek, and, after the repulse of Sigel, aided in dispersing a column of the retreating enemy, capturing 50 prisoners and one cannon. In September he took part in the famous siege of Lexington, and was severely wounded in the right shoulder just as the capitulation was announced. Here also he suffered the loss of his second son, George McNeill, who had been fighting with him, and in the first attack upon Lexington had earned the plaudits of his comrades by planting the Confederate flag in the city, amid a storm of shot and shell. A few days afterward the boy was shot dead while on picket duty. The period of enlistment of McNeill's company expired in December, and he returned to Boone county to raise another command, and while there he and his son Jesse were captured. After spendng a few days in a jail at St. Louis, Jesse escaped and traveled safely through the Northern States to Hardy county. On June 15th Captain McNeill also escaped, and not long afterward was welcomed by the friends of his boyhood. His home country he found ravaged by the Federal scouting parties, one of which drove him from his resting place a few days after his arrival, and he at once determined to raise a body of men to protect this section of Virginia. Going to Richmond in June, 1862, he obtained permission, after much persuasion, to organize a troop to defend the South Branch valley, and on September 1st he began to collect his men. A fortnight later with 20 men he made a reconnoissance toward New Creek, captured several pickets, and at Ridgeville seized a member of the West Virginia legislature. One of the fruits of the expedition was the famous road mare which McNeill rode thereafter. Evading the Federal cavalry which pursued, the men reached Petersburg and organized, electing McNeill captain, Soon afterward he was ordered to join Colonel Imboden at Bloomery, and en route he attempted to ambuscade a party of Federal cavalry near Romney. It happened that he took position between two bodies of the