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Chapter 50: operations in 1865.
On the 2nd of January, 1865, I had a consultation with
General Lee at
Richmond, about the difficulties of my position in the
Valley, and he told me that he had left me there with the small command which still remained in order to produce the impression that the force was much larger than it really was, and he instructed me to do the best I could.
Before I returned from
Richmond,
Rosser started with between 300 and 400 picked cavalry, for the post of
Beverly in
West Virginia, and, on the 11th, surprised and captured the place, securing over 500 prisoners and some stores.
This expedition was made over a very mountainous country, amid the snows of an unusually severe winter.
Rosser's loss was very light, but
Lieutenant Colonel Cook, of the 8th Virginia Cavalry, a most gallant and efficient officer, lost his leg in the attack, and had to be left behind.
The great drought during the summer of 1864 had made the corn crop in the
Valley a very short one, and, as
Sheridan had destroyed a considerable quantity of small grain and hay, I found it impossible to sustain the horses of my cavalry and artillery where they were, and forage could not be obtained from elsewhere.
I was therefore compelled to send
Fitz. Lee's two brigades to
General Lee, and
Lomax's cavalry was brought from across the
Blue Ridge, where the country was exhausted of forage, and sent west into the counties of
Pendleton,
Highland,
Bath,
Alleghany and
Greenbrier, where hay could be obtained.
Rosser's brigade had to be temporarily disbanded, and the men allowed to go to their homes with their horses, to sustain them, with orders to report when called on,--one or two companies, whose homes were down the
Valley, being required to picket and scout in front of
New Market.
