Summary:
Union Colonel James Schoonmaker reports on September, 1864, action in the
Shenandoah Valley. Schoonmaker discusses reports of firing near Staunton, and
the lack of defenses at the town.
Brig.-Gen. CUSTER.
Camp near Cross Keys, Va.,
September 28, 1864
GEN.:
I have the honor to report that I have just this moment returned from the reconnaissance ordered, and beg leave to submit the following report:
I crossed the river with two regiments (Twenty-second Pennsylvania and Eighth Ohio), and proceed without any molestation to the road which leads from Brown's Gap to the Piedmont road and to the ground occupied by this division when it was attacked yesterday, sending strong patrols to within half a mile of Brown's Gap, and on the Piedmont road to near the Staunton pike and to Piedmont. From information carefully gleaned I learned that the enemy's force left the river this morning at 10 a.m. Their force consisted of one brigade of infantry, one of cavalry, and one battery (four pieces) horse artillery. They retired to the cross-roads and thence in rear of the army through Piedmont. The rebel army moved last night in the following order: Rodes' old division, with the entire train, moved up this side of the Blue Ridge in the direction of Rockfish Gap; the remainder of the infantry and artillery moved past Weyer's Cave, through Piedmont and Mount Meridian, in the direction of the railroad; the cavalry moved yesterday from Brown's Gap in the direction of Charlottesville, and a man who passed over the road states that they were scattered from one end of it to the other, twenty-two miles. Early in person went with Rodes' division and the train. At the house where he made his headquarters last night they reported him beastly intoxicated all night. Kershaw's division is shoeless, and a large number of the infantry without arms. While on the hill above Weyer's Cave I could distinctly hear artillery firing in the direction of Staunton, and citizens report heavy firing in the direction of Rockfish Gap this a.m. Nothing has passed through Brown's Gap. Citizens state that Early was censured from Richmond for placing his command in the mountain region and leaving Staunton and the Valley open. I tried to capture some prisoners, but the only squall I saw flew like sheep in all directions. My command is upon the same ground occupied during the day, and pickets out as ordered.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. M. SCHOONMAKER,
Col., Cmdg.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 43, Serial No. 90, Pages 513, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
