detachment of two divisions, Hood's and Pickett's under Longstreet, to guard Richmond against an attack from that quarter. It does not appear from the official correspondence on the Federal side that any serious movement of that sort was in fact contemplated, but General Longstreet as well as the authorities in Richmond were obsessed with that idea.
It is evident from the correspondence of the period that General Lee parted with his two divisions with reluctance. On the 16th of February he wrote the President that he had received the dispatch of the Secretary of War, conveying his, the President's wishes, and that he had accordingly directed Hood to march to Hanover Junction, and that Longstreet was directed to move Pickett on to Richmond. The letter indicates that Lee was meditating an offensive himself as soon as conditions became favorable.
On the 16th of March General Lee wrote Longstreet, referring to the removal of Burnside's corps and its expected appearance south of James River; that from present appearances it was fair to presume he would be called on to engage the enemy first on the Rappahannock, and he wished him to be prepared to return the troops recently detached to that point when it became necessary. On the 17th, Longstreet replied, "I shall be ready to join you with Hood's division at any moment, and trust to your being able to hold the force in your front in check until I can join you." On the 19th, Longstreet wrote, "It seems to me a matter of prime necessity to keep the enemy out of North Carolina in order that we may draw all the supplies there, and if we give him ground at all, it would be better to do so from the Rappahannock. It is right as you say, to concentrate and crush him; but will it be better to concentrate on his grand army, than on his detachments, and then make a grand concentration on the grand army? If we draw off from the front of his grand army, we ought to be able to crush rapidly his detachments, and at the same time hold the grand army in check as far as South Anna at least, particularly while the roads are so very bad, then concentrate on the grand army and dispose of that." In pursuance of this idea he applied to Lee for another
