Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 3.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

---

[822] between Peter's Mountain and Potts' Mountain, is only a narrow passage which Potts' Creek crosses on the north to empty itself at Covington into Jackson's River. On the east of these mountains there are two or three lines of secondary hills, then a large valley spreading itself as far as the Blue Ridge, which is the prolongation of the valleys of the Cumberland and the Shenandoah. On the north of Staunton the valley, rich and fertile, is watered by the affluents of the James, which, in leaving it, throws itself among the rocks of the Blue Ridge, forming Balcony Falls. These affluents are, on the right, Craig's Creek, a sinuous torrent, near which is found the village of Newcastle, and, more to the southward, the Catawba, upon which, at a short distance, is situated Fincastle, the principal county-town; on the left, North River, on which is situated the town of Lexington, renowned in Virginia for the military academy in which Jackson¹ was a professor, and which had the honor of having for its president General Lee during the last years of his life. The road from Fincastle to Lexington crosses the James on Buckhannon Bridge. A gap like that of Balcony Falls, from which it is separated by the large group of the Peaks of Otter, opens a passage to the Roanoke River, which rises in Catawba Mountain and waters a more southern section of the large passage situated on the west of the Blue Ridge. The Tennessee Railroad, while passing at the foot of the peaks of La Loutre, penetrates by the defile of Buford's Gap into this basin, and for a space ascends the Roanoke before going through the valleys whose waters descend to the Ohio by the New River. Salem is the principal station on this part of the line; it is the main point of the nearest railroad from Callaghan's, from which it is separated only by thirty-eight miles as a crow flies: however, as it occupies the centre of the only section of this line which the Federals did not seem to threaten, the Confederate authorities had chosen it as a suitable place for their depots intended to provide for Longstreet's corps in the West. That was an especial reason for Averell's blow.

This general, despite the rigor of the season, leaves New Creek on the 8th of December with two regiments of mounted infantry, a cavalry regiment, and a battery of artillery. He passes Petersburg