Summary:
The personal antagonism between Confederate Generals Henry Wise and John Floyd hampered military operations in western Virginia during the summer and early fall of 1861. In this letter, Confederate Adjutant General Samuel Cooper authorizes Robert E. Lee, commanding at Staunton, to transfer one of the two generals to a new command.

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ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GEN.'S OFFICE,

Gen. R. E. LEE, C. S. A.,
Cmdg. Forces, Staunton, Va.:

Richmond,

September 12, 1861.

GEN.:

I am instructed by the President to say that you have authority to transfer Gen. Wise's Legion proper to any other command than that of Gen. Floyd. You can transfer it to your own immediate command or make any assignment of it which you may deem proper, in order to produce harmony of action, it being clearly evident that the commands of Gen.'s Floyd and Wise cannot co-operate with any advantage to the service. The absence of Gen. Wise's Legion from the future operations of Gen. Floyd will be replaced by orders from here for Col. Russell's Twentieth Mississippi Volunteers and Col. Phillips' Georgia Legion, both at Linchburg, to join Gen. Floyd.

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

S. COOPER,
Adjutant and Inspector Gen.

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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 5, Serial No. 5, Pages 848, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.