HEADQUARTERS,
Winchester, Va., June 20, 1861.
General SAMUEL COOPER,
Adjutant and Inspector General:
GENERAL: Colonel Jackson, with a field battery and four regiments of Virginia Volunteers, is at Martinsburg; Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart, with six companies of Virginia cavalry, between that place and the Potomac; seven battalions are near this place; three battalions under Col. A. P. Hill are on the road toward Romney, and a battalion under Lieut. Col. G. H. Steuart, detached to Harper’s Ferry. There are three field batteries with the battalions here. The enemy’s movements can-not be ascertained accurately. Yesterday Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart reported him encamped around Williamsport. He was informed by a well-recommended clergyman that he had met 5,000 or 6,000 on the way from Williamsport to Chambersburg going, they said, to Washington. This morning Colonel Stuart reports that a regiment of infantry has returned to our side of the river. All the information I could obtain from this vicinity in Maryland, and from friends in Baltimore, was to the effect that 18,000 men would advance from Chambersburg to co-operate with an army from Ohio. My belief in these reports prevented me from availing myself of an opportunity to strike a hard blow. General Cadwalader’s forces which crossed the Potomac probably scarcely exceeded 8,000. The population bordering the Potomac in Virginia is all hostile to us; they inform the enemy of every movement of ours, while we know nothing of his but what we see. I send two prisoners taken by one of Colonel Stuart’s men opposite Williamsport yesterday. They represented themselves to be a lieutenant-colonel and private acting as colonel’s secretary. Your main re-enforcements, I doubt not, should go to General Beauregard. A few mounted companies are much wanted here. We have not the number required for picket service. If this want can be supplied, I beg that it may be. I had the pleasure to receive 8,000 cartridges this morning, and your letter of the 18th.
Most respectfully,
J. E. JOHNSTON,
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army.
Sources
The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series I, Vol. LI, Part II. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1897.
Spirit of '61 