(Confidential.)
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
March 8, 1864.
LIEUT.-GEN. JAMES LONGSTREET,
Commanding, etc., Greeneville, Tenn.
GENERAL: I was in Richmond when your letter arrived, and
have been so much occupied by the recent movements of the enemy that it is only
today that I can reply. I think the enemy's great effort will be in the West,
and we must concentrate our strength there to meet them. I see no possibility
of mounting your command without stripping all others of animals and rendering
them immovable. If horses could be obtained for you, where are the forage and
equipments to be procured? The former is not to be had nearer than Georgia. It
could not be furnished by the railroad, and I do not think equipments could be
impressed through the country. If you and Johnston could unite and move into
Middle Tennessee, where I am told provisions and forage can be had, it would
cut the armies at Chattanooga and Knoxville in two, and draw them from those
points, where either portion could be struck at in succession as opportunity
offered. This appears to me at this distance the most feasible plan; can it be
accomplished? By covering your front well with your cavalry, Johnston could
move quietly and rapidly through Benton, across the Hiwassee, and then push
forward in the direction of Kingston, while you, taking such a route as to be
safe from a flank attack, would join him at or after his crossing the Tennessee
River. The two commands upon reaching Sparta would be in position to select
their future course, would necessitate the evacuation of Chattanooga and
Knoxville, and by rapidity and skill unite on either army. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the
country to do more than indicate the general plan. The particular routes,
passage of rivers, etc., you and Johnston must ascertain and choose. The
condition of roads, etc., may oblige you to pass through the western portion of
North Carolina, but this you can ascertain, if you do not already know, as well
as the distances each column would have to traverse before uniting, their point
of junction, time of marching, etc. The agents of the commissary department
tell me there is an abundance of provisions and forage in Middle Tennessee,
which is corroborated by individuals professing to know that country. But this
should be investigated too. It is also believed by those acquainted with the
people that upon the entrance of the army into that country its ranks will be
recruited by the men from Tennessee and Kentucky who have left it. A victory
gained there will open the country to you to the Ohio.
Study the subject, communicate with Johnston, and endeavor
to accomplish it or something better. We cannot now pause. I will endeavor to
do something here to occupy them if I cannot do more. I hope Alexander has
joined you with his new commission. The promotion of the other officers of
artillery was ordered as proposed during my last visit to Richmond. Walton
retains his former position in the Washington battalion.
Wishing you all
success and happiness, I am, very truly,
R. E. LEE,
General.
SOURCE: John William Jones, Life and Letters of
Robert Edward Lee: Soldier and Man, p. 327-8
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