Sender: Robert E. Lee, Note on a Report of the New Bern, North Carolina, Expedition of 1 February 1864 Recipient:
Hd Qrs: 9 Feby. ’64.
Respy. returned - Commander Wood who had the hardest part to perform did his part well - Hoke seems to have done all he could, & it was not expected that Dearing could do more than to occupy Fort Bannington. But Genl Barton seems to have altogether failed, which I hope can be satisfactorily explained. It was competent for Genl Pickett to have charged the mode of attack if circumstances prompted it.
R. E. Lee Genl.
W. J. De Renne CollectionWormsloe, Chatham County, Georgia (1914)
Printed in Douglas Southall Freeman, Lee’s Dispatches, Dispatch No. 77. Freeman speculated that this document was Lee’s endorsement on a report of the New Bern, North Carolina, Expedition of 1 February 1864