Beverly, a hundred miles from Staunton, was near the gate through which the Staunton road passes on its way northwestward to Parkersburg and Wheeling, whilst Gauley Bridge was the key-point of the Kanawha route on the westerly slope of the mountains.
General Lee determined to send columns upon both these lines.
General Henry A.Wise (formerly Governor of Virginia) took the Kanawha route, and General Robert S.Garnett (lately Lee's own adjutant-general) marched to Beverly.

[Footnote: Official Records, vol.ii.pp.

908, 915.] Upon Porterfield's retreat to Beverly, Garnett, who had also been an officer in the United States Army, was ordered to assume command there and to stimulate the recruiting and organization of regiments from the secession element of the population.

Some Virginia regiments raised on the eastern slope of the mountains were sent with him, and to these was soon added the First Georgia.

On the 1st of July he reported his force as 4500 men, but declared that his efforts to recruit had proven a complete failure, only 23 having joined.