Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Chapter XXII: Operations in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Mississippi, North Alabama, and Southwest Virginia. March 4-June 10, 1862., Part II: Correspondence, Orders, and Returns.
Lieut. Col. Robert N. Scott, Ed.

[428] at Pound Gap under the present law, and probably under the new act of Congress the men will elect their officers, and I hope that Lieutenant-Colonel Leigh may be their choice for colonel.

I have also to inform you that Colonel Williams has been nominated to be a brigadier-general, and, if confirmed, will be ordered to report to you.

You can depend, general, upon the entire support of the Government in your efforts to attain the objects for which you are laboring, and I need not say that the improper and reprehensible means mentioned by you as being used to impair the efficiency of your efforts to bring out the men of your district can have no influence upon those who are acquainted with the valuable services you are rendering to the cause.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

General: Should the enemy in the Shenandoah Valley be able to reach Staunton, General Heth will be compelled to retire upon Lynchburg. In that event you may not be able to maintain your position, but be obliged to fall back upon Abingdon, and, should circumstances require, to join General Heth, and unite in the endeavor to hold the line of the Blue Ridge.

With this view I have to request that you prepare yourself and command for the execution of any movements that may be necessary, and satisfy yourself as to the best routes, and, should you be unable to form a junction with General Heth, to ascertain the best route into North Carolina from Abingdon or other point on the road at which your march may be interrupted. General Heth has been directed to keep you advised of his movements and their necessity. Place your army in as movable and effective a condition as possible.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Special orders, no. 55.

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II. The troops of the Army of the West, known as the Missouri State Guard, will at once be organized into companies, battalions, and regiments, in conformity to the laws of Congress.

Those who have been, or may hereafter be, enrolled into the Confederate service will in like manner be organized in companies, battalions, and regiments.

Major-General Price, to whose division these troops belong, is charged with the execution of this order.

By order of Maj. Ge. Earl Van Dorn: