Summary:
Union Cavalry General Wesley Merritt reports to Division commander John Buford on efforts to
locate the enemy after the battle of Gettysburg. Merritt reports capturing many convalescent
Confederates returning from Staunton.
Brig.-Gen. Buford,
Comdg. Cavalry Division:
Manassas Gap, Va.,
July 21, 1863.
Gen.:
Your dispatch of this date is received. I will use every endeavor to find the whereabouts of the enemy. Prisoners captured, among whom are 2 commissioned officers, seem to indicate by their statements that Lee has not crossed the Shenandoah. I have tried every means to get the truth from them. A strong infantry force is reported in my front. I can hold this position against odds. I am now well to the west mouth of the Gap.
All the prisoners thus far captured belong to the Seventeenth Virginia Infantry. Some report they come from Staunton (convalescents). From all I can gather, Lee appears to be in the direction of Bunker Hill or Winchester, as I can get no report of his having crossed the Shenandoah. All the prisoners hitherto captured report that they have waded. Corse's division, to which the prisoners belong, report that he (Corse) is about 10,000 strong. A member of the signal corps reports a large wagon train on the other side of the river, and a column of infantry and a battery on this side, moving this way. A regiment sent out to Front Royal reports within 2 1/2 miles of that place and no enemy. I can gain no further information up to this time.
Very respectfully, &c.,
W. MERRITT,
Brig. Gen. of Volunteers, Comdg. Reserve Brigade.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 27, Serial No. 45, Pages 735, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
