Summary:
Army of the Potomac commander Ambrose E. Burnside replies to General in Chief
Henry Halleck on a reported January, 1863, Confederate advance on Winchester
from Staunton, VA.
Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK,
Gen.-in-Chief:
January 6, 1863--11.15 p.m. (Received 12 a.m., 7th.)
Your dispatch is received. I can scarcely believe that Gen. Hill is in the valley, and I certainly cannot conceive why he should move from here to Staunton to make a start. He was reported some days' since by Gen. Dix's spies as having gone south. If he is there, his force, combined with that of Gen. Loring, can scarcely exceed 15,000 men, and I take it that the forces of Gen.'s Milroy, Kelley, and Kenly will be able to check any serious movement they may attempt. Should you find it necessary, you can order Gen. Slocum to that region, and I will replace him by the Eleventh Corps. If they are moving up the valley they are too far off for any general movement of this army to have any effect upon them before they will have encountered our forces there.
A. E. BURNSIDE,
Maj.-Gen., Cmdg.
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 950-951, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
