Summary:
Union General Franz Sigel forwards U. S. Army Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas
intelligence gathered on March, 1864, Confederate actions in the Shenandoah
Valley. Sigel's sources report that Confederate troops were collecting forage
near Staunton in preparation for a raid into West Virginia. Troops in the
Staunton area moved west for the same purpose.
Brig. Gen. L. THOMAS,
Adjt. Gen. of the Army, War
Dept., Washington, D. C.:
Cumberland, Md.
March 23, 1864.
SIR:
Col. Wilkinson, commanding at Clarksburg and Bulltown, reports as follows:
John L. Keyvey, a deserter from Lanahan's battalion, of Fifteenth Virginia (rebel) Cavalry, in which he served as ordnance sergeant, makes the following statements:
"I think that John Righter is now in the northwest part of Harrison County recruiting for the rebel army. He has about 80 men and recruiting. He crosses, as a general thing, the railroad at Long Run Station, then goes by Bulltown salt-works, thence through the glades to Lewisburg. He has orders to remain there until the raid of Early, Jackson, Imboden, Rosser, Fitzhugh Lee, and Jenkins, which is to start as soon as the roads are fit. Their destination is Wheeling. They will make a feint on Beverly, while the main force, which will be 18,000 to 20,000, with five batteries, will march on the Northwestern turnpike. They will be all mounted except Early's division, which consists of three brigades of infantry. They are collecting forage at Staunton; they get it from Botetourt County. I am satisfied that they will attempt the raid as soon as the roads will permit. Early is to command the whole."
Col. Moor, commanding at Beverly, reports:
My scouts returned, and report that Gen.'s Echols, Jenkins, Jackson, and Rosser will move on Beverly by the 1st of next month. Letters, deserters, and refugees corroborate the above statement.
Gen. Averell, commanding cavalry at Martinsburg, reports 22d:
Two deserters just in report that McNeill, with 500 men, started from near Staunton for the South Branch Valley about three days ago. No force in the Shenandoah Valley except Imboden and three Georgia regiments. Pickets at Woodstock.
No information of special importance from the Kanawha Valley.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
F. SIGEL,
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 719, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
