Summary:
Robert E. Lee writes John Imboden, commanding Confederate partisan rangers,
concerning operations in western Virginia during October, 1862. Lee instructs
Imboden to send to Staunton any cloth, leather, and stores collected.
Col. J. D. IMBODEN,
Cmdg. Partisan Rangers:
Camp near Winchester, Va.,
October 19, 1862.
COL.:
Your letter of the 15th instant to Gen. Jackson has been received, and I am glad to learn that you are progressing favorably in collecting cattle in Hardy and Hampshire. Please give such attention to the subject as you can, and, in addition to the cattle, collect for the army all the cloth, leather, &c., that you can send forward toward Staunton. I hope you will not lose sight of the destruction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and of doing such other damage to the enemy as your means will permit.
A gentleman who left Clarskburg on the 7th, and said to be reliable, states that Mulligan and Kelley are at that place with three brigades numbering about 7,000 men; that there is one brigade at Parkersburg, one regiment at Buckhannon, and 300 men at Beverly. These were all the troops he could learn of in Northwestern Virginia. If this intelligence is correct, Kelley's forces in front of you, at New Bridge, &c., must probably have been diminished, and it does not accord will the intelligence you report brought by a lady from Clarksburg. You will probably be able to ascertain the truth yourself, and shape your course accordingly.
Gen. Jenkins, according to information from Gen. Loring, with about 1,500 cavalry, ought to be in the country about Clarksburg now. His instructions were to destroy the roads in the vicinity of Clarksburg, Piedmont, Cheat River, &c. Gen. Loring has been informed of your position and operations, and that you would be ready to co-operate with him if practicable. Gen. Loring expected to move via Lewisburg and Monterey to Cheat River with his infantry. Since then I have heard of the Kanawha Valley being again threatened, which may detain his infantry.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
R. E. LEE,
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 672, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
