| South Anna Bridge |
| July 7, 1863 |
| |
| Maj. Archer Anderson |
| Assistant Adjutant-General |
| |
| Major, |
| As soon as I arrived here,
thinking the Yankees designed an attack either on Gordonsville or
the {Virginia} Central Railroad, I sent
out two companies to cut their line of march, find out their force,
&c. These companies went as far as the Mattapony. The enemy on
the east side of the Pamunkey did not go higher than Littlepage's
Bridge, at which point they crossed and recrossed, and not beyond
the Fredericksburg road on the west side. They are now marching for
the White House, down the east bank of the Pamunkey. I made a
requisition for a 10-pounder Parrott gun for my battery, and it was
promised me as soon as they had any. If the Ordnance Department has
one now, I wish you would have it sent down. I will have the works
at these two bridges finished to-morrow. I will send Colonel Baker
to the Old
Church
to-morrow. Are my two regiments to be sent up? Will not the defeat
of Meade take Dix's force to Washington? |
| I again call the general's
attention to the fact that these convalescents are without cooking
utensils and flies. More than half of them are said by the doctors
to be sick, too sick, in fact, to be here excepting under pressing
circumstances. |
| Very respectfully, |
| Jno. R. Cooke |
| Brigadier-General |
|