Summary:
During the Civil War, Confederate armies often suffered shoe shortages. In this
November, 1862, letter, Robert E. Lee writes Adjutant and Inspector General
Cooper to discuss the detail of men from the army to work as shoemakers in
Confederate cities. Lee mentions Staunton as one of the cities in need of
shoemakers.
Gen. S. COOPER,
Adjutant and Inspector Gen.,
Richmond, VA.:
Camp near Culpeper Court-House,
November 15, 1862.
GEN.:
I inclose herewith a copy of Special Orders, No. 243, from these headquarters.
From Paragraphs VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, and XII, you will see that the number of men required from this army have been detailed to work as shoemakers, and ordered to report to the Quartermaster's Department for duty at the several points in this department specified in the circular of the Quartermaster-Gen. One hundred men were required for Richmond. Ninety are detail from Lieut.-Gen. Longstreet's corps, and the remaining 10 will come from the command under Maj. Gen. G. W. Smith, double that number of applications having been received from the Quartermaster's Department and from individuals for the detail of men in his command, and it is presumed he can supply the 10 wanted to complete the number for Richmond. For Petersburg, Danville, Lynchburg, and Staunton the number asked for have been detailed. In addition to these, you will receive from the same order that 12 men, who were applied for by Maj. F. W. Dillard, assistant quartermaster at Columbus, Ga., have been ordered to report to him at that place for the same duty. I herewith return Maj. Dillard's letters, as they contain the names of several men not in this army. I also return, disapproved, one or two applications of the same character received from your office, and refer you to the endorsements thereon for the reasons of the disapproval. I hope that this large detail will be sufficient to supply the wants of the Quartermaster's Department, for I cannot recommend that any more be made from this army, which is already so reduced by details of various characters as seriously to impair its efficiency.
I am, most 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 21, Serial No. 31, Pages 1012--1013, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
