Summary:
In this December, 1863, dispatch, Union cavalry general Benjamin F. Kelley writes General Darius Couch, commanding the Department of the Susquehanna at Chambersburg, on Confederate movements in the Shenandoah Valley.

---

Maj.-Gen. COUCH

ChambersburgCUMBERLAND,

December 31, 1863

Your telegram of yesterday received, and this morning received the order from the War Department. Gen. Sullivan reports that Gen. Early is moving down the Shenandoah Valley with a large force, and was last night between Strasburg and Winchester. I will therefore be compelled to detain Col. Boyd's command until further developments, but will send it the earliest moment I can safely spare it. I presume the best route for him to take will be by Hagerstown, as he is now near Harper's Ferry.

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 595, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.