Summary:
On May 8, 1862, Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson launched his Valley
campaign by attacking and defeating troops under Robert Milroy at McDowell. In
the aftermath, Milroy scrambled to discover Jackson's next movements. In this
letter to his commanding general, John C. Fremont, Milroy reports on
intelligence gathered by his scouts, including the movement of troops on trains
in the Staunton area.
Gen. FREMONT:
CAMP MILROY,
May 10, 1862.
Gen. Schenck, I presume, has kept you fully advised of all matters of importance that have transpired in this part of the detachment since he joined me. Two of my most valuable scouts, who were over in the vicinity of Staunton at the time Jackson's and Johnson's forces advanced across the Shenandoah, got in this evening through many narrow escape. They report that they were on the North Mountain, near Buffalo Gap, the day of the fight at McDowell, and that after Jackson's forces had left three large trains arrived from the direction of Staunton filled with soldiers, who disembarked, and the trains went back, and that from various sources they had learned that Jackson's and Johnson's forces united were about 14,000 previous to the re-enforcements.
My scouts to-day report the enemy's pickets, cavalry and infantry, within 12 miles of this place, which is not defensible.
R. H. MILROY,
Brig.-Gen.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 12, Serial No. 18, Pages 168, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
