Summary:
Throughout the war, Staunton, VA, served as an important Confederate supply base.
In this June, 1861, letter, Robert E. Lee notifies General Robert Garnett,
commanding at Laurel Mountain in what is now West Virginia, that troops are on
the way from Staunton with various supplies ordered by Garnett.
HEADQUARTERS,
Brig. Gen. R.S. GARNETT,
Commanding Northwestern
Virginia, Laurel Hill, Va.:
Richmond, Va.,
June 25, 1861.
GENERAL:
On to-morrow the two remaining companies of Col. Fulkerson's regiment, viz, the Thirty-seventh, commanded, respectively, by Capts. Gibson and Wood, and two belonging to the Twentieth, commanded by Capts. Jones and William B. Bruce, leave for your command via Staunton. They will take with them two 6-pounder iron guns, with ammunition, two hundred tents, and the following articles of clothing, viz, seven hundred and twenty overcoats, one thousand pairs of socks, and six hundred pairs of drawers. I am informed by the Quartermaster's Department that at present there are no shirts on hand, but that the number called for in your requisition (five hundred) will be forwarded, together with the balance of the overcoats, as soon as made. By the Quartermaster's statement it appears that six hundred and forty-nine blankets have been previously furnished the troops under your command, and that there is not now a single blanket in store. In addition to the two hundred tents mentioned above, the two companies belonging to the Twentieth Regiment, and before alluded to, take with them twenty-two tents on Col. Gilham's requisition.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
R.E. LEE,
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 950, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
