Summary:
Army of the Potomac cavalry commander Alfred Pleasonton informs General Randolph
Marcy of intelligence gathered by pickets in October, 1862. He reports that the
Confederate army moved from Winchester to Staunton.
Gen. R. B. MARCY.
Purcellville,
October 29, 1862
A citizen of Maryland, from Winchester to-day, has just been brought in by my pickets, who states that he escaped from prison this morning, as they were releasing some Federal prisoners, and crossed the Shenandoah below Snicker's Gap. He reports the rebel army moving from Winchester to Staunton; that there are only 200 infantry and three regiments of cavalry now in Winchester, doing provost duty over prisoners. The rebel army, he says, is in wretched condition; that provisions are very high, and bread and beef are the only issues.
I think this man is a deserter from Stuart's cavalry, who probably joined him in his late raid and is tired of his bargain.
A Union gentleman from Waterford told me to-day that he was in Winchester some ten days ago, and that he saw a provost guard called to arrest a suspected person, and that out of the 10 men of the guard 6 were barefooted, and that this was the average condition of their army. He thought the soldiers looked dispirited.
Very respectfully,
A. PLEASONTON,
Brig.-Gen.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 19, Serial No. 28, Pages 109, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
