Summary:
Union Colonel J. M. Schoonmaker writes from occupied Staunton to Captain Will Rumsey on Confederate positions during the June, 1864, fighting in the Shenandoah Valley.

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Capt. WILL RUMSEY,
Assistant Adjutant-Gen.:

Staunton, Va.,

June 9, 1864.

CAPT.:

Maj. Capehart has just returned from a support to my pickets and a reconnaissance as far as Fishersville. Reports having seen a very strong line of vedettes on this side of the town, 200 yards in advance of it; the enemy throwing up intrenchments of some light strength on the opposite side of town. He states that the country is very rough and the creek thinly wooded on each side where the pickets are being placed. I fear they will be very much exposed, and we will lose them by detail. Would it not be better to withdraw the picket one mile this side of the creek and patrol to it?

Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

J. M. SCHOONMAKER,
Col., Cmdg.

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Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 37, Serial No. 70, Pages 615-616, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.