Summary:
Confederate Cavalry General Fitzhugh Lee reports on December, 1863, operations
around Staunton and in the Valley. Lee's cavalry played a role in opposing a
Union raid led by William Averell into West Virginia and the Shenandoah
Valley.
Lieut. Col. A. S. PENDLETON,
Major-General.
December 24, 1863.
COLONEL:
I have the honor to submit the following report of recent operations, for the information of the major-general commanding:
Left the army on the Rapidan, with two brigades of my command, on the 11th instant, for the purpose of going into winter quarters near Charlottesville, my other brigade being left to picket.
Reached Charlottesville on the 12th, and left on 14th, in obedience to an order from General Stuart to interpose my command between the force threatening Staunton from the lower valley and that place.
Reached Valley turnpike at Mount Crawford (the lowest place I could cross the Shenandoah), by way of Brown's Gap, on the 15th, and finding all quiet in lower valley, the enemy being at Strasburg with no signs of an advance, I turned up the pike with the purpose of assisting Imboden, who was said to be confronting a superior force of enemy on Shenandoah Mountain, and encamped on night of 15th 6 miles from Staunton. The same night Major General Early arrived at Staunton and took command.
On 16th, my command arrived at same place and was ordered back to lower valley, encamping that night near Mount Crawford. On 17th, in compliance with orders
I have the honor to submit the following report of recent operations, for the information of the major-general commanding:
Left the army on the Rapidan, with two brigades of my command, on the 11th instant, for the purpose of going into winter quarters near Charlottesville, my from General Early, retraced my steps, and started in pursuit of Averell, marching day and night in the cold storm, and reaching Lexington on 18th at daylight, and uniting at that point with General Imboden, and the home guards of Rockbridge, under Colonel Massie.
On night of 18th, encamped at Collierstown, at the foot of North Mountain. It was there that I received a dispatch from the major general commanding inclosing a telegram from General Nicholls, at Lynchburg, to the effect that the enemy were returning to Salem, and expressing the hope that I was on the way to Buchanan. Intelligence that the enemy were back in Salem was soon after brought to me, also, by one of Colonel Massie's scouts. My advance, then (19th) upon top of North Mountain, was halted and countermarched; and that night I encamped between Buchanan and Fincastle. Averell was then encamped at Covington. At Buchanan I first learned the falsity of report, but could not ascertain whether the enemy had gone in the direction of Sweet Springs or Covington.
Upon my arrival at Fincastle on 20th, learning that the enemy had gone toward Covington, I marched for that place, reaching it two days after him. I still followed on, with the hope that his course might be checked or retarded, giving me time to close up. After passing Callaghan's I learned that there was no other force in his front, so turned off to Warm Springs, striking the Central Railroad at Goshen. Had my march across North Mountain not been changed by dispatches received, and the conviction that if I interposed between the enemy and myself a stream represented as likely to be impassable for some days, I would leave the route by Buchanan open and expose Lexington, or enable him to retire on south of Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, or through Giles and Monroe Counties, without molestation, I should have arrived at Covington three hours ahead of him; or had Colonel Jackson destroyed the bridge over Jackson's River, or interposed any obstructions to his march, Averell's command must have been captured.
Too much credit cannot be attributed to the cheerfulness with which both the members of General Imboden's command and my own have borne the privations and exposure of a long march in weather of uncommon severity, and the alacrity they evinced to meet the enemy. My own command has marched over 300 miles in twelve days.
As far as I can learn, Averell's force consisted of the Second, Third, and Eighth Regiments of West Virginia Cavalry; the Fourteenth Pennsylvania, Major Gibson's battalion, and Captain Ewing's battery of six guns--in all about 1,700 men--said to be mostly six-months' volunteers, whose term of service expires in January next. He lost all his wagons, and is reported to have carried but three of six pieces of artillery back past Callaghan's. Colonel Jackson can report the number of prisoners taken.
My especial thanks are due to General F. H. Smith, of Virginia Military Institute, for the promptness with which he moved his command and the eagerness he evinced for the capture of the enemy; and to Mr. Mann, formerly sheriff of Rockbridge County, for valuable services.
The casualties of my command are confined to the loss of Private Marmaduke, of the Ninth Virginia Cavalry, who was drowned while fording Jackson's River.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
FITZ. LEE,
Major-General.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 29, Serial No. 48, Pages 971-972, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
