Headquarters,
New Market, Va., August 7, 1862
Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, Commanding Cavalry:
General: Your dispatch of yesterday is received. I am much gratified at your severing the line of march of Hatch’s and Gibbon’s brigades. I think it will arrest their march and cause a retrograde movement. Their object is, I think, the railroad and the recall of Jackson. If they could reach a position in which Jackson could interpose between them and Fredericksburg they would be annihilated. Give him all information and co-operation. The greatest benefit you can do is what you are now doing, cutting up their communications, trains, &c. Keep me informed of events.
Very respectfully,
R. E. Lee,
General
Source: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Vol. 12, Part 3, p. 925
Transcribed by Colin Woodward, 2016 July 19
