Saturday, October 21, 2017

Edwin M. Stanton to Major-General Joseph Hooker, May 7, 1863 – 9:30 p.m.

WASHINGTON, D. C.,
May 7, 1863 9.30 p.m.
Major-General HOOKER:

Richmond papers of Tuesday received at this Department are full of accounts of the panic and destruction accomplished by Stoneman. From the several papers, and the statement of General Stoughton, just arrived, the following, among other facts, appear:

1. That a portion of Stoneman's force was within 2 miles of Richmond on Monday. This is stated by the Richmond papers. General Stoughton reports that there was not at that time a single soldier in Richmond.

2. The road was torn up at various points, and General Stoughton says the canal broken, but the papers assert it was not broken.

3. Stoneman's force is represented to be divided into detachments, operating in different directions, and producing great panic everywhere in that region.

Other details are given at great length, but the above are the principal points. The result at Chancellorsville does not seem to have produced any panic. Gold has only risen 6 per cent. in New York, and at the close to-day had gone down 4. The public confidence seems to remain unshaken in the belief of your ultimate success.

EDWIN M. STANTON,
[Secretary of War.]

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 25, Part 2 (Serial No. 40), p. 439

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