Summary:
May, 1865, Union orders establishing post offices in towns returned to United
State's authority, including the soon to be garrisoned Staunton, VA.
Col. MARKLAND,
Superintendent of Mails for the Army
of the United States:
Richmond, Va.,
May 1, 1865.
COL.:
I am instructed by the major-general commanding the department to say that he deems it important that post offices be opened with as little delay as possible in the towns recently restored to the possession of the United in this department in order that the citizens may have facilities for resuming and carrying on their business. It is specially important that this be done at once in Richmond and Petersburg. Fredericksburg, Bowling Green, Columbia, Charlottesville, and Yorktown, are already occupied by U. S. forces, and garrisons will shortly be established at Lynchburg, Staunton, Gordonsville, and Danville. He requests that arrangements be made for the regular transmittal of mails to and from all these places. At those points where garrisons are established these arrangements may be made at once, and at the other points named as soon as the troops reach them.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
ED. W. SMITH,
Assistant Adjutant-Gen.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 46, Serial No. 97, Pages 1062, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
