Summary:
Early in the war, Staunton, VA, served as an important rail center and rendezvous point for volunteers mustering into service. In this May, 1861, letter, John Echols announces to Robert E. Lee his arrival in Staunton with several newly formed companies.

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Maj. Gen. R. E. LEE:

STAUNTON,

May 15, 1861.

SIR:

I reached here this afternoon in charge of three hundred troops from Monroe, Greenbrier, and Alleghany, forming two infantry and two rifle companies. Three of the companies are entirely without arms, and the other, an infantry company, has only some fifty-five flint-lock muskets, in bad order. The companies are not yet fully uniformed and I will have to detain them here for three or four days for the purpose of completing their equipment, which is to be done at the expense of their respective countries. In the mean time I shall be glad to know if I must send on to Harper's Ferry those companies which are entirely unarmed. Three of the companies are raw and undisciplined, although the material of which they are composed is very fine.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. ECHOLS,
Lieut.-Col. of Volunteers.

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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 847-848, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.