Lee, Robert E. Manuscript letter signed to Colonel Henry Brevard Davidson, 26 June 1863

LEE, ROBERT E.

MANUSCRIPT LETTER SIGNED ("R E LEE GENL"), TO COLONEL HENRY BREVARD DAVIDSON, PLANNING THE TRANSPORTATION OF TROOPS FOR HIS INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA

One page (10 x 8 in.; 253 x 204 mm) on a leaf of white paper, "Head Quarters A N Va." [near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania], 26 June 1863, docketed on verso; mounting stub from album on right margin verso.

Five days before the Battle of Gettysburg, Lee urgently tries to mass troops for his second invasion of the North. General Lee give detailed instructions to Colonel Davidson, Confederate commander at Staunton, Virginia, on the dispatch of Confederate troops on trains to Pennsylvania: "I desire you to keep the soldiers returning to the Army who come via Staunton together until they reach 500 or a thousand in number and then send them on organized and armed under the command of competent officers and prepared for a long march. I wish them always in bodies large enough to protect themselves. … This march to the Potomac at Williamsport will be a long one & they will probably have a long one from that point. These bodies may serve as guards for the ammunition or other trains leaving Staunton for the Army which should never come without sufficient guard under vigilant & active officers who will keep the men under control & the trains well closed up and be ever on their guard against a surprise."

LITERATURE:

Not in Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee and presumably unpublished.

PROVENANCE:

From an archive of correspondence related to CSA Brig. Gen. Henry B. Davidson.