..., to make a simultaneous advance to capture Staunton and break Lee's communications with the Shenandoah valley, with the 6,500 men and 28 guns in his command. Apprised of this movement, Lee ordered Gen. John C. Breckinridge to collect at Staunton the infantry and cavalry outposts that had wintered in the mountains west of the Great valley, and had called upon the governor of Virginia to add to these the cadets from the ...