July 12, 1861

The road to Beverly is blockaded, stopping the Army of the Northwest’s retreat south. General Garnett receives a report that Federal troops are in Beverly (a mistake). With few choices left to him, Garnett decides to reverse direction and push north, hoping to reach the western tip of Maryland and then to turn back south toward Monterey, Virginia. The army does an about-face, with the First Georgia now in the rear guard. As rain continues to pour down, the troops struggle through knee-deep mud along narrow mountain paths. Much equipment is jettisoned from the wagons to lighten the load. Some of the wagons literally slide off the trail and crash down in ravines below. The Southern Guard and the Gate City Guards, Companies B and F, lose their company flags this way. By late that evening, the army reaches Kalers Ford on the Shavers Fork River, where the exhausted troops go into bivouac.

Back at Laurel Hill, Union General Thomas Morris dispatches three infantry regiments and two artillery pieces, under the command of Captain Henry W. Benham, in pursuit of the Confederates.