Summary:
Lewis Harvie, President of the Danville and Richmond Railroad, writes Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon in June, 1864, to express his fear that Federal troops will be able to take the railroad. He reports on the inadequate defenses at Staunton and other places.

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Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON:

CHULA,

June 22, 1864.

Unless troops are sent to the protection of the railroad I consider it as completely at the mercy of the enemy. There will be some show of fight at ---, but with 300 men and such guns as are there it could only last a short time. At Flat Creek nothing of any moment has been done for its protection. At Staunton a few days since there were only 250 men, and they reserves, and six guns only carrying shot 1,000 yards, and the earth-works in a very incomplete state. Without aid from headquarters the probability is that transportation will cease over the road within twenty-four hours. It is for the authorities in Richmond to protect it; we cannot. I shall be in town to-night.

LEWIS E. HARVIE,
President Richmond and Danville Railroad.

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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 40, Serial No. 81, Pages 682, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.