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Amick's Rangers

History of Company A
Amicks Independent Scouts
A Family in the Fight
Page Four
In April 1864, General Crook and his yankee army arrived in Fayetteville.  Company A continued to ambush the Union men in small skirmishes, and 10 Rangers were captured.  Word arrived that the Shenandoah Valley was burning as the Rangers dogged General Crook's men.  After the battle of Cloyd Mountain, Captain John almost got a long range shot at the general.  Certain death if he gets a bead on you.
Captain Michael Egan, "The Flying, Grey-Haired Yank",
15th West Virginia Volunteers, one of Crook's company commanders,
was captured by the Rangers, May 19th, 1864.
Amicks joined along with the cadets at New Market to defeat General Sigel, and also fought when the yankees burned Lexington.  Campaigning with Early in the Valley, James P. Amick is captured at Piedmont and later Perry is captured near Winchester.  The Rangers bushwhacked "Black Dave" Hunter's retreating men after Gen. McClausland captured all their vital supplies at Hanging Rock, choking off yankee burning raids into the Shenandoah. 

Sept. 25, 1864, the Rangers, led by Captain John J. Halstead and Captain Joseph A. McClung, attacked and captured the yankee fort at Kessler's Cross Lanes and Ramsey's Home Guard.  All of the Rangers, newly smartly uniformed, had joined Colonel Vincent Witcher in his Weston Raid to attack Union forts built in the area.  In retaliation, General Crook ordered yankee Colonel Oley to conduct a "scorched-earth policy" to burn civilian homesteads, instead of fighting the Rangers. Crook previously burned out Webster County and rationalized that starving the Amick wives and children was "cheaper".

Next April, Amick's Rangers resume the fight, but battles elsewhere in Virginia ended the war.  Major D. S. Hounshell surrendered the army and 150 men of Company A,  Amick's Independent Battalion of Hounshell's Cavalry, were paroled April 25-26, 1865 at Lewisburg, west Virginia.


A century later, Great Aunt Maude would write, "There was some violence."
Captain John W. Amick
Undefeated
Not Forgotten
Lone Ranger John J. Halstead (3L)
Nicholas County, 1926
Confederates Co. A MUSTER ROLL Sitemap
Halstead Votes Amick Soldiers