Summary:
In February, 1864, Confederate General Jubal Early commanded troops in the
Shenandoah Valley. In this letter, Early writes from Staunton to Robert E. Lee
concerning actions and movements in his jurisdiction. Early mentions being in
Staunton to oversee his engineers' preparations for defense of western Virginia.
Early also mentions his desire to return east to join Lee after a furlough.
General R. E. LEE,
Commanding:
STAUNTON,
February 12, 1864.
GENERAL:
Matters are quiet in the valley at present, and I hear of no indications of a movement by the enemy. The enemy has left Hardy County, and there has been no effort to reoccupy Petersburg, and I think there will not be any, at least for this winter.
The statements published in the Yankee papers that they attacked Rosser and recaptured the prisoners taken at Patterson's Creek and captured and wounded some of our men is an arrant falsehood from beginning to end. When Rosser went to Patterson's Creek he sent a regiment toward Romney to prevent any attempt to get into his rear by a force coming from Martinsburg that way. A lieutenant and 5 or 6 men were sent ahead as scouts, and on reaching Romney found a considerable force of cavalry advancing. They were pursued by the enemy, and the lieutenant's horse fell with him in the river and threw him, and he is supposed to have been captured. The regiment (the Seventh) took position in a gap at Mechanicsburg, and there had a skirmish with the advance of the enemy and drove it back, having 2 men wounded. Rosser came back without being attacked at all and without losing any of his men after the fight with the guard for the train.
The force which came to Moorefield as we were leaving consisted of some 2,000 or 3,000 mounted men sent from Martinsburg and Charlestown, and a considerable body of infantry and cavalry sent from New Creek and Green Spring and Cumberland, with twelve pieces of artillery, and perhaps more. It did not attack us and did not attempt to follow us. Only some 600 or 700 of the cattle brought off will do for beef, and they have been started to the army.
I am here to see the engineers about the defenses to be constructed west of this place, and shall leave in the morning for Buffalo Gap and Millborough. I desire to know how long you expect me to remain here. You will recollect that I have received no definite instructions, and have always regarded my position here as temporary. I have therefore left all my messing arrangements at my division headquarters, and I am badly off for horses here. My division will require my presence for some time before the beginning of the spring campaign to get it into condition. I fear things are getting loose there. I wish you, however, to understand that I am willing to do any service that you think I can do with benefit to the country.
Upon leaving here I should like to go home for some fifteen or twenty days before taking command of my division, for several considerations, as I have not been at home since the war began except for a very few days, when I was wounded in June, 1862. However, as I think all private considerations should give way to the public interests in these times, I shall be contented if you think I had better not go home. If I do go I should like to be at the March term to the court of my county, which takes place on the first Monday of the month, as I am informed there is engendering some discontent with the war and some lukewarmness in the cause, which I am informed I can rectify by my presence.
I hear there is some danger of Rosser's appointment not being confirmed. I have conceived a very high opinion of him as a cavalry officer, notwithstanding the affair I mentioned to you of his coming here after his wife. He attends to his duties and manages his men well and I should regard it a great loss to the service if he should fail of having his appointment confirmed. He desires in the event of an advance of Meade upon you to cross the mountain and strike the railroad and the enemy's trains in the rear, and I submit whether it would not be well to keep him here with that view.
Respectfully,
J. A. EARLY,
Maj.-Gen.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 33, Serial No. 60, Pages 1166-1167, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
