you believe to be required? I do not doubt the readiness with which you would give way to one who could accomplish all that you have wished, and you will do me the justice to believe that if Providence should kindly offer such a person for our use I would not hesitate to avail [myself] of his services.
My sight is not sufficiently penetrating to discover such hidden merit, if it exists, and I have but used to you the language of sober earnestness, when I have impressed upon you the propriety of avoiding all unnecessary exposure to danger, because I felt our country could not bear to lose you. To ask me to substitute you by some one in my judgment more fit to command, or who would possess more of the confidence of the army, or of the reflecting men of the country, is to demand an impossibility.
It only remains for me to hope that you will take all possible care of yourself, that your health and strength may be entirely restored, and that the Lord will preserve you for the important duties devolved upon you in the struggle of our suffering country for the independence which we have engaged in war to maintain.
As ever, very respectfully and truly,
Resources of the Confederacy in February, 1865.
The following papers need no further explanation than that contained in Colonel Kean's letter. Their importance and value will be appreciated by all seekers after historic truth. We will continue their publication until all of them have been published, having regard to convenience in printing rather than to the order in which the papers are named in the list:
LETTER FROM COLONEL R. G. H. KEAN.
General Jubal A. Early, President Southern Historical Society:
My Dear Sir—I herewith deliver to your society, through you, the accompanying papers, which possess considerable historical interest, and ought, I think, to be in the possession of your society.
The history of them is as follows: When General J. C. Breckinridge took charge of the War Office as Secretary of War, succeeding Honorable James A. Seddon on the 7th February, 1865, his first steps, taken at the suggestion of Judge John A. Campbell, Assistant Secretary of War, was to address a circular letter to each of the Chiefs of Bureaus in the War Department, calling on them for information of the state of the service in their respective branches. Similar letters were addressed at the same time to Generals Lee and J. E. Johnston, asking for authentic reports of the status of their armies and the prospects before them.
Responses were made, which were kept together in a bundle in the War Office, of which as Chief of the Bureau of War I had
