Summary:
Confederate General Samuel Jones writes General John Imboden, commanding at
Staunton, regarding Imboden's plans for an April, 1863, raid into West Virginia.
Jones reports sending an engineer to Staunton to assist Imboden's planned
attempt to destroy the Cheat River bridge.
Brig. Gen. J. D. IMBODEN,
Cmdg., &c.,
Shenandoah Mountain:
Dublin,
April 4, 1863.
GEN.:
Your letter of the 1st instant was received only a few moments since.
The necessary orders will be immediately given to Col. Patton. The Fifty-fourth and Fiftieth Virginia Regiments having been ordered out of my department (the Fiftieth will go to Gen. Lee as soon as transportation is provided), I shall not be able to send George M. Edgar's battalion with Col. Patton. As the Fiftieth, which is as large as the Twenty-fifth and Thirty-first together, goes to Gen. Lee, I take it for granted he will send the two latter to you. I have written to him that he may count with certainty on receiving the Fiftieth. Col. W. L. Jackson has a regiment collected, and the field officers will be elected and the organization completed before you start. Something over 200 of his men are now in the lower end of Pocahontas; most of them are of the Virginia State Line, are armed, and have seen service. I will direct Col. Jackson to join you and act under your orders. I saw him yesterday, and told him of my intention to send him with you on the expedition. He is at the Warm Springs, and I wish you to communicate with him.
Inform me if Gen. Lee has sent the Twenty-fifth and Thirty-first to you. If he has not, write and urge him to do so. The Fiftieth will be with him before Hooker will move.
My engineer and his party will leave here for Staunton on the 9th or 10th instant.
Very respectfully and truly,
SAM. JONES,
Maj.-Gen.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 25, Serial No. 40, Pages 704, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
