Summary:
Confederate Charles Stringfellow writes General John C. Breckinridge, commanding at Staunton, with May, 1864, troop movements in preparation for battle with Union forces in West Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley.

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Maj.-Gen. BRECKINRIDGE, Staunton:

DUBLIN,

May 9, 1864.

Col. Bowen has arrived with the Forty-fifth Virginia Regt. and is on the field (Bowen should read Browne. Correction from General Index). About 400 more men will be up in two or three hours, under orders from Jenkins. I am waiting to equip and carry them out. Our line of battle just this side of Back Creek. Considered the best position between mountain and this point. Jackson advancing from Union; French at Narrows, blocking road; Twenty-second Virginia Cavalry moving in the same direction. Enemy descending Cloyd's Mountain. Pickets been firing two hours; six or eight cannon shots just heard. It will be two hours before the fight opens fairly. Our men in splendid spirits, anxious for the fight, and perfectly confident. Will telegraph from the battle-field.

CHAS. S. STRINGFELLOW.

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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 726-727, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.