Summary:
Confederate judge John Brockenbrough writes Secretary of War James Seddon updating him on June, 1864, fighting in the Valley. Brockenbrough reports Union General William Averell's advance from Staunton.

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Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War:

BONSACK'S,

June 11, 1864.

Averell's cavalry, reported 4,000 strong, crossed the North River, eight miles above Lexington, at 12 o'clock last night, and it is presumed entered and occupied the town before daybreak this morning. McCausland, with 1,500 cavalry, skirmished with them several times during the day, but could not impede their advance materially. Averell came from Staunton by the Middlebrook and Brownsburg road, and Crook's infantry force is reported to be advancing by the Greenville and Fairfield road, with no Confederate forces between him and Lexington. Doubtless the Virginia Military Institute is now a heap of ruins. Can you send a force to intercept them and co-operate with the heavy force of Breckinridge in their rear? Buford's Depot, on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, is but twelve miles from Buchanan and nearer, too, to the route of the enemy than any other.

JOHN W. BROCKENBROUGH.

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