Julius de Lagnel, while manning a cannon on the top of Rich Mountain, was wounded in the hip and hand and hid in a thicket to avoid capture. In the aftermath of the battle three groups of Confederates fled the mountain, because of his injury de Lagnel was on his own. He crawled and walked through the wilderness until he came upon the White’s cabin a few miles southwest of Beverly. The family provided him with food and shelter for several weeks and nursed him back to recovery. Dressed in a herder’s disguise and mimicking a mountaineer’s accent he attempted on foot to rejoin his fellow comrades. Julius was able to convince many of the Union guards along the way that he was a local farmer in search of a lost steer.

About eight miles south of Huttonsville, near the Yankee’s Camp Elkwater, he was stopped by two privates, Vincent and Watson, from the 3rd Ohio. His clothes were torn, he had a shoulder bag, a walking stick, and because his feet had become swollen, he was carrying his boots in his hands. They thought something wasn’t quite right about this farmer and brought him to Captain Henry Cunard. The captain noticed the boots, which were beyond the means of a simple country farmer. After continued questioning deLagnel admitted his true identity. He was a former lieutenant in the Union Army and resigned his commission to become a Captain in the Confederate Army. As a result, he was imprisoned and subsequently exchanged at Norfolk for Captain J.B. Rickets in December. For the rest of the war he served in the Confederate Ordinance Bureau in Richmond and as an inspector. He died in Washington, D.C. in 1912 and is buried in St. Paul’s Cemetery in Alexandria, VA.

Sources

Rebels at the Gate: Lee and McClellan on the Front Line of a Nation Divided by W. Hunter Lesser.

Blue and Gray Magazine August 1993 Northwestern Virginia Campaign of 1861 by Martin K. Fleming.