Summary:
Confederate General Samuel Jones writes Colonel William Browne on August, 1863,
actions in West Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. Jones mentions a possible
raid toward Staunton.
Col. W. H. BROWNE,
Little Levels, Pocahontas County,
Va.:
SALT SULPHUR SPRINGS,
August 23, 1863.
COL.:
I have just received a dispatch from Col. Jackson, dated yesterday. He was at Gatewood's house, on Back Creek, 12 or 15 miles from Huntersville, on the road to Warm Springs. He left two companies at his old camp, 3 miles from Huntersville, on same road. He thinks this move of the enemy was designed to surround and capture him, and not to make a raid on Staunton. Col. Jackson has a strong position on Back Creek, and expresses entire confidence in his ability to hold it, if attacked. He was skirmishing all day Friday, the 21st, with the enemy on Knapp's Creek. If the enemy attempts to move on Col. Jackson by the road from Huntersville to Warm Springs (he thinks they are moving both by the Knapp's Creek and Back Creek roads), I think you can get in their rear, and you and Jackson together, perhaps, capture them.
It is impossible at this distance, and without full knowledge of the enemy's movements and strength, to give minute instructions. I trust with confidence to your own judgment to profit by any opportunity that offers to punish the enemy.
I do not think that Averell had more than 1,200 or 1,300 cavalry. If he has divided that force and is moving by the two routes, as Col. Jackson says, you will be fully able to manage the column nearest you.
Communicate fully with Col. Jackson, and co-operate with him. I believe you rank him, but unless the two commands actually come together, there need be no question of rank raises. Col. Jackson has served long in that section of country and knows it well.
I trust that you two will so manage as to punish the enemy severely before they extricate themselves from the mountainous country into which they have penetrated.
Communicate with me freely by way of Lewisburg.
Very respectfully, &c.,
SAM. JONES,
Maj.-Gen., Cmdg. Dept. of Western Virginia.
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 663, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
