HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
September 10, 1864.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond:

GENERAL: Brigadier-General Echols reports that the troops in the Department of East Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia are greatly in need of organization and proper discipline. He desires the services of an efficient, active, and experienced ins pecking officer, and I think it very important that one be sent to him as soon as possible. I would suggest the name of Lieutenant-Colonel Chandler, if he can be spared, for the duty. If there be no other equally suitable for the position at your disposal, I would respectfully suggest that it would be well to substitute some one for Colonel Chandler in his present position, and send him to General Echols. The importance of having an able and experienced inspector with General Echols is very great and the necessity urgent.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. E. LEE,

General.

HEADQUARTERS, &C.,
Lower Valley, September 10, 1864.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.:

GENERAL: Intelligence from Brigadier-General Echols, and from other resources, shows a bad state of affairs in West Virginia and East Tennessee; and since I am somewhat familiar with that country and know something of the troops and people, I venture most respectfully to submit a few suggestions. I have been able to give very little attention to my department since I left it on the 5th of May last. The cavalry belonging to that department has, for this campaign, reported directly to Lieutenant-General Early since our forces were united. It is no very effective, and a portion of it was left in West Virginia and East Tennessee. The infantry and artillery which I took from the department, now reduced to some 2,500 effective, compose and excellent and seasoned force. The troops now in West Virginia and East Tennessee are mere fragments of organizations, and should be collected together, reorganized, and, in some instance, consolidated. The country is full of deserters and men absent without leave, who need to be deal with at once. I believe that a judicious mixture of severity and clemency would greatly swell our ranks, and that if at the close of the campaign here my troops now in this Valley could be returned to that region, I could very soon present to the Government a force double its present size. I will not enlarge, as I presume General Echols will inform the Department fully of the condition of affairs, nor will this communication, I hope, be thought an inpatient expression of desire on my part to be transferred from one field of labor to another. I venture to add that West Virginia and East Tennessee might well be thrown together, and that this Valley has more direct military relation to other points than to the Trans-Allegheny region.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE,

Major-General.