Summary:
Robert E. Lee writes Jefferson Davis in December, 1864, to inform him of
movements in the Shenandoah Valley. Lee reports that he has sent Robert Rodes'
division to Staunton to board trains for Richmond.
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,
President of the
Confederate States:
NEAR PETERSBURG,
December 14, 1864.
MR. PRESIDENT:
After sending my dispatch to you yesterday, knowing that the snow in the Valley was six inches deep and the weather very cold, and presuming that active operations would necessarily be suspended, I directed Rodes' division to march for Staunton and requested the quartermaster-general to send cars to convey it to Richmond. It is now on the road, and should reach Staunton to-morrow evening. If the Quartermaster's Department is active it should arrive in Richmond Friday morning. A dispatch received from Gen. Early last night states that the scouts report that the nineteenth Corps of the enemy had left the Valley, and that the Eighth was under marching order. The latter might be preparing to move nearer the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, for I do not think they will strip it of all defense, of both corps may be coming to Gen. Grant. Col. Withers' scouts report that a New York regiment of infantry and part of the Seventh Regt. of cavalry has left the Kanawha for the Valley, but I supposed they might have been intended to replace the garrison at New Creek. I do not know what may be Gen. Grant's next move; his last against the Weldon railroad and out right flank failed. The expeditions from Plymouth and New Berne against Fort Branch, on the Roanoke, and Kinston, N. C., have both retreated before the forces moved against them back to their former positions, and everything at this time is quiet in the Departments of Virginia and North Carolina.
Your obedient servant,
R. E. LEE,
Gen.
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 938, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
