HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
August 4, 1863.

Major General J. E. B. STUART,

Commanding Cavalry:

GENERAL: Your note, inclosing one from Fitz. Lee, was received. The corps of Longstreet and Hill will cross the Rapidan to-day, and the army will be concentrated south of the Rapidan. If we leave Culpeper, the enemy will enter it. If you can hold it without sacrificing your men, it will be well. So long as you remain, your supplies can be forwarded by rail to the Court-House, and you can inform Colonel Corley whether it will be safe. If you are forced back, it will be best to come back to the rivers, where you can get good grazing.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. E. LEE,

General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,

Numbers 190.

August 4, 1863.

II. In accordance with his own request, Brigadier General B. H. Robertson is relieved from duty with the two regiments of cavalry (formerly a part of the brigade in North Carolina) on duty with this army, and will report for orders to the Adjutant and Inspector General, C. S. Army, Richmond, Va.

Ba order of General Lee:

W. H. TAYLOR,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[No date.]

General GEORGE E. PICKETT,

Commanding, &c.:

GENERAL: You and your men have crowned yourselves with glory' but we have the enemy to fight, and must carefully, at this critical moment, guard against dissensions which the reflections in your report would create. I will, therefore, suggest that you destroy both copy and original, substituting one confined to casualties merely. I hope all will yet be well.

I am, with respect, your obedient servant,

R. E. LEE,

General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Numbers 5.

Richmond, January 13, 1864.

II. -JOINT RESOLUTIONS of thanks to General Robert E. Lee, and to the officers and soldiers under his command.

Whereas the campaigns of the brave and gallant armies covering the capital of the Confederate States, during the two successive years of 1862 and 1863, under the leadership and command of Gen-