Summary:
Union General Phil Sheridan writes to Chief of Staff Henry Halleck in January, 1865, concerning arrangements to provide for the destitute citizens of the Shenandoah Valley between Staunton and Winchester. Sheridan wishes to distribute rations among the civilians.

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Maj.-Gen. HALLECK,
Chief of Staff of the Army, Washington, D. C.:

Winchester, Va.,

January 25, 1865.

GEN.:

In obedience to instructions, and from military necessity, the Valley of the Shenandoah from Winchester to Staunton, a distance of ninety-two miles, was so much desolated as to make it necessary to issue at the present time a small number of rations. These destitute people cannot be provided for according to the system proposed in your communication of December 24, 1864, to Maj.-Gen. Dodge. The people of this section are now so poor that there is no way that a tax fund can be created, except by an attempt to sell household furniture, and even then I doubt if there would be purchasers. The number now issued to will reach probably 800, but will increase. The issue made to these people have been carefully managed, and are only made in small quantities.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

P. H. SHERIDAN,
Maj.-Gen., Cmdg.

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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 46, Serial No. 96, Pages 264, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.