An impracticable country--Movements suspended--Experienced troops ordered away--My orders from Washington--Rosecrans objects--A disappointment--Winter organization of the Department--Sifting our material--Courts-martial--Regimental schools--Drill and picket duty--A military execution--Effect upon the army--Political sentiments of the people--Rules of conduct toward them--Case of Mr. Parks--Mr. Summers--Mr. Patrick--Mr. Lewis Ruffner--Mr. Doddridge--Mr. B. F. Smith--A house divided against itself--Major Smith's journal--The contrabands--A fugitive-slave case--Embarrassments as to military jurisdiction. Floyd's retreat was continued to the vicinity of Newberne and Dublin Depot, where the Virginia and East Tennessee Railway crosses the upper waters of New River. He reported the country absolutely destitute of everything and the roads so broken up that he could not supply his troops at any distance from the railroad. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. v. pp. 287,288.] Rosecrans was of a similar opinion, and on the 19th of November signified to General McClellan [Footnote: _id_., p. 657.] his purpose to hold Gauley Bridge, Cheat Mountain, and Romney as the frontier of his department, and to devote the winter to the instruction and discipline of his troops, and the sifting out of incompetent officers. About the 1st of December he fixed his headquarters at Wheeling, [Footnote: _Id_., pp. 669, 685. On January 21 I called attention to the anomaly of bounding the department by the Kanawha River on the south, and correction was at once made by General McClellan. _Id_., p. 706.] assigning the District of the Kanawha to my command, with headquarters at Charleston. [Footnote: _Id_., pp. 670, 691.] This gave me substantially the same territorial jurisdiction I had in the summer, but with a larger body of troops.