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HEADQUARTERS, March 17, 1863.
General R. E. Lee, Commanding, &c., Fredericksburg, Va.
General: Your letter of the 16th is Just received. I have Hood’s division on the railroad ready for a move in any direction, and have kept him there with the view to some such emergency as indicated in your letter. The order for the return of the troops from Western Virginia to their old positions and some movements that I thought best to make in order to draw the enemy out into some development of his plans have made it necessary to detach some of General Pickett’s division. I shall be ready to join you with Hood’s division at any moment unless there is a fine opportunity to strike a decided blow here, in which case I think I had better act promptly and trust to your being able to hold the force in your front in check until I can join you. The force at Newport News is reported to-day as moving to re-enforce Suffolk. I fear that the real object is to join Foster at New Berne. If this is the intention I shall be obliged to move all of Pickett’s division down to Goldsborough. I have tolerably accurate information of this force and put it down at 20,000 full, but its condition is such that I do not regard it as certain to succeed in any desperate undertaking. The prisoners taken at Arkansas Post are expected here to-day. If they arrive they will be organized and armed at once, and will help us along wonderfully. I am about to start out for the Blackwater, and will write to you more fully on my return.
I am, general, most respectfully, your obedient servant,
JAMES LONGSTREET,
Lieutenant-General.