Summary:
Staunton, VA, served as a Confederate recruiting and supply center early in the war. In this May, 1861, letter, Robert E. Lee writes General Thomas J. Jackson concerning recruiting in western Virginia. Lee also promises to send Jackson arms and ammunition from Staunton.

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HEADQUARTERS VIRGINIA FORCES,

Col. T. J. JACKSON, Commanding, &c., Harper's Ferry, Va.:

Richmond, Va.,

May 14, 1861.

COLONEL:

I am very much concerned at the condition of things and the failure to procure volunteers for the service of the State in the country west of you. One thousand stand of arms and some ammunition will be sent to-morrow, under the charge of troop of cavalry, from Staunton to Beverly, Randolph county, for the use of Col. Porterfield. This troop is to collect together volunteers from the well-affected portions of the country through which it passes. If your condition is such as to allow it, I would like you to send some aid to Col. Porterfield; but I am unwilling for you to send a man, if by so doing you endanger yourself in the least. Re-enforcements are being sent to you.

Very respectfully, &c.,

R. E. LEE,
Maj.-Gen., Commanding.

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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 840, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.