Summary:
Staunton, VA, served as a Confederate supply center during the first months of
war. In this May, 1861, letter, General Robert E. Lee notifies Major F. M.
Boykin of orders to send rifles from Staunton to Virginia volunteers.
HEADQUARTERS VIRGINIA FORCES,
Maj. F. M. BOYKIN, Grafton, Va.:
Richmond, Va.,
May 13, 1861.
MAJOR:
Your letter of May 10 has been received. On the 11th instant I wrote to inform you that four hundred rifles were ordered to be sent to the care of Maj. Goff, Virginia volunteers, at Beverly, Randolph County, subject to the directions of Col. George A. Porterfield. Six hundred rifles, in addition to the four hundred of which you were already notified, have been ordered to be sent from Staunton to the care of Maj. Goff, Virginia volunteers, at Beverly, which will be subject to Col. Porterfield's orders. I regret to hear of the difficulties mentioned in your letter of mustering troops at and in the vicinity of Grafton, but hope that by perseverance you will overcome them. Maj. Goff has been directed to muster troops in Randolph and adjacent counties, and it is hoped he will be enabled to obtain a sufficient number for the purpose mentioned in your letter, as it is deemed unadvisable to send troops from the east for the present.
Very respectfully, &c.,
R. E. LEE,
Maj.-Gen., Commanding.
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 837-838, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
