Summary:
Confederate quartermaster H. M. Bell writes General John C. Breckinridge,
commanding at Staunton, concerning General Lee's May, 1864, request for corn.
Lee asks Bell to borrow corn from citizens in the Lynchburg, Staunton, and
Charlottesville areas. If the citizens refuse to part with the corn, Lee
authorizes Bell to impress it. Bell also reports that he will send much of
Breckinridge's supplies to Lee, as Breckinridge can subsist his horses on the
good grass in the Staunton area.
Maj. Gen. J. C. BRECKINRIDGE:
Staunton, Va.,
May 15, 1864.
GEN.:
I have just received the following dispatch:
GORDONSVILLE, May 15,
1864.
Maj. H. M. BELL:
I have dispatch from Gen. Lee, dated 12 o'clock last night, in which he says:
"Borrow all the corn you can from citizens and send me at once If persons
holding corn will not let you have it, impress it. I presume an impressment will
not be necessary when the magnitude of the stake is thought of. Answer me at
once what you can do." He wants an answer from Lynchburg, Staunton, and
Charlottesville. He also wants every artillery horse that can be had. Send by
passenger train anything you can get.
W. B. RICHARDS,
Maj. and
Quartermaster.
I am arranging to send to every part of the country to get corn from the citizens, but as the emergency is great and pressing, I will ship from the corn here belonging to your command all that I can get off by mail train in the morning--say from 600 to 1,000 bushels. As you are in a good grass country, I hope you will be able to subsist without much grain, but I will, if you cannot spare this corn, replace what I take from the corn I hope to borrow from citizens. If you can spare it, I will send all I can get from citizens besides. My forage master reports that there is in my forage house about 1,000 bags of corn belonging to Maj.'s Green and McKendree. Will you please consult with these officers and advise me how much of this corn I can send to Gen. Lee.
H. M. BELL,
Maj. and Quartermaster.
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 737, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
