Summary:
Staunton served as an important base of supply during the July, 1861, defense of
West Virginia against General George B. McClellan's Federals. In this letter,
General Henry R. Jackson urges Michael G. Harman, quartermaster at Staunton, to
send west all available troops. Jackson also makes reference to stragglers,
apparently gathered at Staunton.
Maj. M. G. HARMAN, Quartermaster, Staunton, Va.:
Monterey, Va.,
July 22, 1861.
SIR:
In response to your favor of this day, I would simply refer you to my previous correspondence in reference to the propriety of starting a column upon the Huntersville and Huttonsville turnpike from Millborough, Central Railroad as its base of supplies, and I had inferred from your favor of July 20 that you concurred with me in that opinion, and had already urged it by telegraph upon the President. Grieved to find that my suggestion had not been adopted, and that no regiment had been sent by the way of Millbourough to support Col. Lee, and confirmed in the correctness of my judgment by the recent reported movements of the enemy, I forwarded to you a telegraphic dispatch to-day, looking to the same end, addressed to headquarters, and desired that you should send all available forces at Staunton at once to Millborough. This would seem to make my response to your letter of this date unnecessary. But I am apprehensive that not to respond at once may possibly occasion some delay in a movement which appears to me to be all-important. I must beg, therefore, to insist that any troops designed for military operations in Northwestern Virginia shall be sent, until further notice, by the way of Millborough to their destination. In answer to your inquiry as to what disposition is to be made of the stragglers from the regiments which have suffered so greatly in the retreat from Lauel Hill, I must refer your for instruction to the Commander-in-Chief.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
HENRY R. JACKSON,
Brig.-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 990, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
