Summary:
In this September, 1864, dispatch, Union Colonel James Forsyth orders Wesley Merritt to get his cavalry as close to Staunton as possible, destroying mills, grain, forage, and livestock on the way.

---

Brig. Gen. W. MERRITT,
Cmdg. First Cavalry Division:

Harrisonburg,

September 28, 1864

GEN.:

The major-general commanding directs that you leave a small force at Swift Run and Brown's Gaps, to watch said gaps, and with the balance of your own and Custer's division swing around through or near Piedmont, extending toward and as near Staunton as possible. Destroy all mills, all grain and forage, you can, drive off or kill all stock, and otherwise carry out the instructions of Lieut.-Gen. Grant, and extract of which is sent you, and which means, "leave the Valley a barren waste." In carrying out these instructions, no villages or private houses will be burned. Camp close to the left of the infantry at Mount Crawford to-morrow night. The Sixth and Nineteenth Army Corps will move to Mount Crawford to-morrow.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. W. FORSYTH,
Lieut.-Col. and Chief of Staff.

---

Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 43, Serial No. 91, Pages 202, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.