Summary:
Union General Benjamin F. Kelley writes to Chief of Staff Cullum concerning
November, 1863, plans for an advance into the Shenandoah Valley.
Brig.-Gen. CULLUM,
Chief of Staff:
CUMBERLAND, MD.,
November 29, 1863--9 p. m.
(Received 10.25 p. m.)
The Gen.-in-Chief's telegram of this date received. I have been anxiously awaiting the movements of Gen. Meade, hoping that he would be able to drive Lee's army from Gordonsville and Charlottesville, in which event I could move my force up the Valley of the South Branch of the Shenandoah and occupy Staunton, and hold a line west from that point running through Covington, in Alleghany County, and Lewisburg, in Greenbrier County, and thence to the mouth of Gauley, and thereby shorten my present line several hundred miles; but if you deem your information reliable, and think it best to do so, I can send Gen. Averell, with his whole force, by way of Franklin, Monterey, Covington, and Fincastle, and strike the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad at Salem, in Roanoke, or Bonsack's Station, in Botetourt, or both points. I can also, if you approve, send Gen. Duffie, with his two regiments of cavalry, from Kanawha, via Fayetteville and Raleigh Court-House, and strike the railroad at points between Wytheville and Christiansburg at the same time.
B. F. KELLEY,
Brig.-Gen.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 29, Serial No. 49, Pages 517, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
