Summary:
On July 11, 1861, Union troops under George B. McClellan won a lopsided victory
over Robert S. Garnett's Confederates at the battle of Laurel Mountain, West
Virginia. Garnett lost his life in the battle, and the Confederacy would
eventually loose what is now the state of West Virginia. Staunton, Virginia,
served as an important Confederate supply base and organizing ground for troops
during this campaign. In this letter, Confederate General Henry Jackson
discusses Laurel Mountain and the movement of troops through Staunton. The
Confederate reinforcements included local militia who, in Jackson's opinion,
will do more harm than good.
BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS,
Col. GEORGE DEAS, Assistant Adjutant-Gen.
Camp at Monterey, Va.,
July 16 [18?], 1861.
SIR:
Inclosed herewith I have the honor to transmit copies of correspondence with Maj.-Gen. McClellan, of the U. S. Army, which will explain themselves. Further information received has confirmed into assurance the hope expressed in my last letter that the retreating column of Gen. Garnett had not been so wholly [dispersed] after his death as was first supposed. I have good reason to believe that by Friday next some twenty-five hundred or three thousand men connected with it will join me here.
I also learn that a company of artillery with four pieces, and capable of effective service, has escaped the disasters of the last week almost intact. With an Arkansas regiment, understood to be approaching from Staunton, this accession will raise my command to some seven thousand men. I have sent a courier to met Col. Ramsey, with a direction that the artillery and cavalry be advanced with all possible dispatch. So soon as I can control their services, I hope to occupy the stronghold of the Alleghany Mountains, which commands this road, the indications of yesterday having suggested that the enemy may conclude to advance by that route.
The work of reorganization is going on in this camp quite perceptibly, I think, but I have been somewhat alarmed by a notification from Maj. Harman, quartermaster at Staunton, that within five days five thousand troops, whom I suppose to be the militia of the adjoining county, will be upon the march to join me here. It is questionable whether so large a body of wholly undiscipline men, however zealous and patriotic they may be, will be able to compensate, by service in the field, for the disorganization they must occasion in the camp, and for the labor of arming, transporting, and supplying them. Supposing that the death of Gen. Garnett, and the relief of his command from immediate danger in removing the necessity for their services, may prevent their assemblage and forward movement, and exceedingly loth to interference with any direction from the State authorities, I shall leave all communication with Maj. Harman upon this subject to the Commander-in-Chief.
Permit me again to reiterate that what we need upon this line is good engineers, artillery of a heavier caliber than we now have to meet such moving with the enemy, and mountain howitzers, which the character of this country would render eminently effective.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
HENRY R. JACKSON,
Brig.-Gen., &c.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 2, Serial No. 2, Pages 249-250, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
