Summary:
Robert E. Lee writes General Samuel Jones on June, 1863, plans. Lee mentions his orders to Imboden to operate with cavalry in the Valley, including the Staunton area.

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Maj. Gen. SAMUEL JONES,
Cmdg. Department Southwestern Virginia, Dublin, Va.:

June 3, 1863.

GEN.:

I have received your letter of May 28. I am very much obliged to you for the offer of the Fiftieth Virginia Regt. So far as I am able to judge at this distance, I think that this army need strengthening at this time more than yours. I will, therefore, keep the regiment in question for the present, but will send it back to you whenever you need it.

The Twenty-fifth and Thirty-first Virginia are on their way to this point.

Gen. Imboden's command was organized for service in North-western Virginia and the Valley, and he reports directly to me. I have instructed him to operate in the Valley and on the line toward Staunton, Huttonsville, Cheat Mountain, Monterey, and the Potomac.

I hope you will be able to do without the transportation captured.

I send you a copy of an order reducing the transportation of this army, and even with this reduction I am deficient in general transportation for commissary, quartermaster, &c., trains.

Wishing you success in your department in the operations of the summer's campaign,

I am, very respectfully your obedient servant,

R. E. LEE,
Gen.

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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 25, Serial No. 40, Pages 852, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.