Today in History:

895 Series I Volume II- Serial 2 - First Manassas

Page 895 Chapter IX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - CONFEDERATE.


HEADQUARTERS VIRGINIA FORCES,
Richmond, Va., May 30, 1861.

Colonel F. H. SMITH,

Richmond, Va.:

COLONEL: I submit below the information you ask for the council. It is, of course, not strictly correct, though I think it is not far out of the way. It is impossible to get returns from these volunteers:

Norfolk, no returns, 7,000 conjectured; Jamestown Island, no returns, fifteen companies, 1,050; Williamsburg and Yorktown, no returns, 3,500; Gloucester Point, no returns, 600; West Point, 250; Richmond, including Ashland and the Confederate States troops, 5,500; Fredericksburg, including counties on the lower Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, number not known, 2,700; Manassas Gap, no returns, 6,000; Leesburg, no returns, 500; Harper's Ferry, excluding Maryland troops, not known, and excluding Point of Rocks, 5,500; Grafton, no returns, 1,000 conjectured; Kanawha Valley, no returns, 1,100; Abingdon, no returns, 500 conjectured; Lynchburg, no returns, 1,000 conjectured; besides a few companies supposed to be at Staunton, Charlottesville, &c. Total, 36,200.

I am, sir, very respectfully, &c.,

R. S. GARNETT,

Adjutant-General.


HEADQUARTERS VIRGINIA FORCES,
Richmond, Va., May 31, 1861.

Colonel W. B. BLAIR:

SIR: The troops in the Kanawha Valley are under the command of Colonel C. Q. Tompkins, whose headquarters are at or near Charleston. There are at present only five hundred men in service. It is designed to have about sixteen hundred, if they can be raised.

I am, sir, very respectfully, &c.,

R. S. GARNETT,

Adjutant-General.

Memorandum for General Lee.


HEADQUARTERS,
Harper's Ferry, Va., May 31, 1861.

Intelligence was brought me this morning, from a gentleman residing near Hagerstown, that 1,600 troops arrived in Chambersburg on Tuesday and 5,000 yesterday, making, with the 3,500 there before, 10,100, with plenty of artillery (quantity unknown), many wagons and horses. A note was shown me yesterday, written in Hagerstown on Wednesday afternoon, by a woman, in which it is said that such a force is to move to the Potomac (with baggage wagons) from Chambersburg through either Hagerstown or Greencastle.

In another note (from an officer of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad), it is said that large forces are to enter Virginia somewhere between Cumberland and Hagerstown to meet Ohio troops. The Northern papers confirm this.

An officer of the railroad told me here that news of the occupation of Grafton by U. S. troops is brought by telegraph. We can learn nothing from the west, nor beyond the range of persons specially employed. Should the enemy cross the river above, we cannot learn when the Ohio troops join them, nor in what numbers.


Page 895 Chapter IX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - CONFEDERATE.