Series 3, Volume 2, pp. 943-44
Hdqrs. C. S. Troops on Shenandoah Mountain, Va.,
December 9, 1862.
His Excellency the President:
Sir: Day before yesterday Mr. Job Parsons, a citizen of Tucker County, in this State, personally well known to me as a man of the highest respectability, came to this camp to enlist under my command. He was pursued by eight of the enemy's cavalry for many miles, but his superior knowledge of the mountains enabled him to elude his pursuers and escape. He handed to me the inclosed original papers, which had been served upon him by the military authorities at Saint George. A similar assessment was made upon Mr. Parsons' father for $300, and on another relative for $700, and payment coerced under the same diabolical threats.
The pretext of "robberies of Union men by bands of guerrillas" is a falsehood. The fact is that Union men have conspired to run off each other's horses to Pennsylvania, where they are secretly sold, the owners afterward setting up a claim for reparation on the false ground that guerrillas have robbed them.
I inclose this evidence of the atrocity of General Milroy for such action as Your Excellency may deem expedient in retaliation, either as a restraint upon this savage or a punishment, should his horrible threat ever be carried into execution.
This is only one of a thousand barbarities practiced here in these distant mountains of which I have almost daily heard for the last four months. Oh, for a day of retribution!
With the highest respect, your obedient servant,
Jno. D. Imboden,
Colonel, Commanding.
Saint George, Tucker County, Va.
November 27, 1862.
Mr. Job Parsons, (son of Abraham):
You are hereby ordered to report in person or by your representative at my headquarters, in Saint George Court-House on the 28th of November, 1862, to attend to business of vital importance to yourself, and in case of your failure to comply with the above order you must suffer the penalty.
By order of Brig. Gen. R. H. Milroy:
Horace Kellogg,
Captain and Post Commandant.
Saint George, Tucker County, Va.,
November 28, 1862.
Mr. Job Parsons, (son of Abraham Parsons):
Sir: In consequence of certain robberies which have been perpetrated upon Union citizens of Tucker County, Va., by bands of guerrillas, you are hereby assessed to the amount of $14.25 to make good their losses, and upon your failure to comply with the above assessment by paying the money over to me by the 1st day of December, 1862, the following order will be executed, viz:
If they fail to pay at the end of the time you have named, their houses will be burned and themselves shot and their property all seized; and be sure that you carry out this threat rigidly and show them that you are not trilling or to be trifled with.
You will inform the inhabitants for ten or fifteen miles around your camp, on all the roads approaching the town upon which the enemy may approach, that they must dash in and give you notice, and that upon failure of any one to do so their houses will be burned and the men shot.
By order of Brig. Gen. R. H. Milroy:
Horace Kellogg,
Commanding Post.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: December 1862