HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF
NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
September 2, 1864.
HIS EXCELLENCY JEFFERSON DAVIS,
President Confederate States.
MR. PRESIDENT: I beg leave to call your attention to the
importance of immediate and vigorous measures to increase the strength of our
armies, and to some suggestions as to the mode of doing it. The necessity is
now great, and will soon be augmented by the results of the coming draft in the
United States. As matters now stand, we have no troops disposable to meet
movements of the enemy or strike when opportunity presents, without taking them
from the trenches and exposing some important point. The enemy's position enables
him to move his troops to the right or left without our knowledge until he has
reached the point at which he aims, and we are then compelled to hurry our men
to meet him, incurring the risk of being too late to check his progress, and
the additional risk of the advantage he may derive from their absence. This was
fully illustrated in the late demonstration north of the James River, which
called troops from their lines here who, if present, might have prevented the
occupation of the Weldon Railroad. These rapid and distant movements also
fatigue and exhaust our men, greatly impairing their efficiency in battle. It
is not necessary, however, to enumerate all the reasons for recruiting our
ranks. The necessity is as well known to your Excellency as to myself, and as
much the object of your solicitude.
The means of obtaining men for field duty, as far as I can
see, are only three: A considerable number could be placed in the ranks by
relieving all able-bodied white men employed as teamsters, cooks, mechanics, and
laborers, and supplying their places with negroes. I think measures should be
taken at once to substitute negroes for whites in every place in the army or
connected with it where the former can be used. It seems to me that we must
choose between employing negroes ourselves and having them employed against us.
A thorough and vigorous inspection of the rolls of exempted and detailed men is
in my opinion of immediate importance. I think you will agree with me that no
man should be excused from service for any reason not deemed sufficient to
entitle one already in service to his discharge. I do not think that the
decision of such questions can be made so well by any as by those whose
experience with troops has made them acquainted with the urgent claims to relief
which are constantly brought to the attention of commanding officers, but which
they are forced to deny. For this reason I would recommend that the rolls of
exempts and details in each State be inspected by officers of character and
influence who have had experience in the field and have nothing to do with the
exemptions and details. If all that I have heard be true, I think it will be
found that very different rules of action have been pursued toward men in
service and those liable to it in the matter of exemptions and details, and I
respectfully recommend that your Excellency cause reports to be made by the
enrolling bureau of the number of men enrolled in each State, the number sent
to the field, and the number exempted or detailed. I regard this matter as of
the utmost moment. Our ranks are constantly diminishing by battle and disease,
and few recruits are received. The consequences are inevitable, and I feel
confident that the time has come when no man capable of bearing arms should be
excused unless it be for some controlling reason of public necessity. The
safety of the country requires this, in my judgment, and hardship to
individuals must be disregarded in view of the calamity that would follow to
the whole people if our armies meet with disaster. No detail of an arms-bearing
man should be continued or granted except for the performance of duty that is
indispensable to the army, and that cannot be performed by one not liable to or
fit for service. Agricultural details take numbers from the army without any
corresponding advantage. I think that the interest of land-owners and
cultivators may be relied upon to induce them to provide means for saving their
crops if they be sent to the field. If they remain at home, their produce will
only benefit the enemy, as our armies will be insufficient to defend them. If
the officers and men detailed in the conscript bureau have performed their
duties faithfully, they must have already brought out the chief part of those
liable to duty, and have nothing to do now except to get such as from time to
time reach military age. If this be true, many of these officers and men can be
spared to the army. If not, they have been derelict, and should be sent back to
the ranks, and their places supplied by others who will be more active. Such a
policy will stimulate the energy of this class of men. The last resource is the
reserve force. Men of this class can render great service in connection with
regular troops by taking their places in trenches, forts, etc., and leaving them
free for active operations. I think no time should be lost in bringing out the
entire strength of this class, particularly in Virginia and North Carolina. If
I had the reserves of Virginia to hold the trenches here, or even to man those
below Richmond on the north side of the river, they would render greater
service than they can in any other way. They would give me force to act with on
the offensive or defensive, as might be necessary, without weakening any part
of our lines. Their mere presence in the works below Richmond would prevent the
enemy from making feints in that quarter to draw troops from here, except in
such force as to endanger his own lines around Petersburg. But I feel confident
that with vigorous effort, and an understanding on the part of the people of
the necessity of the case, we could get more of this class than enough for the
purpose last indicated. We could make our regular troops here available in the
field. The same remarks are applicable to the reserves of North Carolina, who
could render similar services at Wilmington, and allow the regular troops to
take the field against any force that might land there. I need not remind your
Excellency that the reserves are of great value in connection with our regular
troops to prevent disaster, but would be of little avail to retrieve it. For
this reason they should be put in service before the numerical superiority of
the enemy enables him to inflict a damaging blow upon the regular forces
opposed to him. In my opinion the necessity for them will never be more urgent
or their services of greater value than now. And I entertain the same views as
to the importance of immediately bringing into the regular service every man
liable to military duty. It will be too late to do so after our armies meet
with disaster, should such, unfortunately, be the case.
I trust your Excellency will excuse the length and
earnestness of this letter in view of the vital importance of its subject, and
am confident that you will do all in your power to accomplish the objects I
have in view.
With great respect,
your obedient servant,
R. E. LEE,
General.
SOURCE: John William Jones, Life and Letters of
Robert Edward Lee: Soldier and Man, p. 338-40
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