Summary:
Confederate General John C. Breckinridge writes Robert E. Lee concerning Breckinridge's May, 1864, attempts to link up with General Imboden and repel a Union advance on Staunton.

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Gen. R. E. LEE,
Cmdg., &c., Orange Court-House, Va.:

DUBLIN DEPOT, VA.,

May 1864

A dispatch from the President says information indicates propriety of my joining Imboden to meet movement on Staunton, and tells me to communicate with you. I have Echols in Monroe County, 1,600 men; Wharton at Narrows of New River, 900 men; McCausland at Princeton, 1,500 men; all infantry. Scarcely any mounted men yet east of New River. Enemy threatening from Kanawha, and reported 8,000 men, which is probably exaggerated. It is thirty-six miles from Echols to Jackson River Depot, and sixty miles from Narrows. You thus see the situation. I was starting to the front, but will wait to hear from you, and act upon your views of the emergency.

JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE,
Maj.-Gen.

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