Secretary of War:
WINCHESTER, VA.,
April 18, 1862.
After a full consultation with Gen. Banks have concluded to say: Our troops here, east and west, are idle. One brigade added to Fremont's force will do all there if combined with the following: Move rest of Blenker's on Luray, to cut off Jackson's retreat by Thornton's Gap; Banks to move on Harrisonburg; Fremont to follow with forces from west, according to circumstances, to sustain the corps of Banks; he to move by Staunton or Brown's Gap, to sustain move of the Blenker column toward Culpeper or Stanardsville, Madison, or Charlotte or Gordonsville; McDowell moves up and sustains this advance, thus turning the lines of Rappahannock and Rapidan, with 50,000, to drive them behind the James River, while Fremont, closing in, would threaten to turn that line by Lynchburg.
W. S. ROSECRANS,
Brig.-Gen.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 12, Serial No. 18, Pages 89, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.