HEADQUARTERS VALLEY DISTRICT,
December 13, 1864.

Brigadier General BRYAN GRIMES:

GENERAL: You will leave in the morning for Staunton to take the railroad for Richmond. Get everything ready and start about 8 o'clock. Let me see you to-night. Say nothing about where yo are going.

Respectfully,

J. A. EARLY,

Lieutenant-General.

NEAR PETERSBURG, December 14, 1864.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President of the Confederate States:

MR. PRESIDENT: After sending my dispatch to you yesterday, knowing that the snow in the Valley was six inches deep and the weather very cold, and presuming that active operations would necessarily be suspended, I directed Rodes' division to march for Staunton and requested the quartermaster-general to send cars to convey it to Richmond. It is now on the road, and should reach Staunton to-morrow evening. It the Quartermaster's Department is active it should arrive in Richmond Friday morning. A dispatch received from General Early last night states night states that the scouts us in report that the nineteenth Corps of the enemy had left the Valley, and that the Eighth was under marching order. The latter might be preparing to move nearer the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, for I do not think they will strip it of all defense, of both corps may be coming to General Grant. Colonel Withers' scouts report that a New York regiment of infantry and part of the Seventh Regiment of cavalry has left the Kanawha for the Valley, but I supposed they might have been indented to replace the garrison at New Creek. I do not know what may be General Grant's next move; his last against the Weldon railroad and out right flank failed. The expedition s from Plymouth and New Berne against Fort Branch, on the Roanoke, and Kinston, N. C., have both retreated before the forces moved against them back to their former positions, and everything at this time is quiet in the Departments of Virginia and North Carolina.*

Your obedient servant,

R. E. LEE,

General.

PETERSBURG, December 14, 1864.

General J. C. BRECKINRIDGE,

Wytheville:

If force is reduced in Kanawha or Northwestern Virginia, direct Witcher to take advantage of it.

R. E. LEE.

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*For portion here omitted, see Vol. XLII, Part III, p.1272.

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