Robert E. Lee to Jefferson Davis

I have listened with great pleasure to the account given by Genl Ripley of the condition of affairs in S.C. & Charleston. It is painful to me to contemplate the evacuation of the city. Its necessity must be determined by the officers on the spot responsible for the act. I do not think it will be abandoned by Genl Beauregard if not imperatively necessary. Its loss would be aggravated if accompd by the loss of the army placed there to defend it. I think it safer & perhaps easier to prevent the enemy from reaching Charleston. I hope by concentration of all their forces that Sherman may yet be arrested in his course. If he cannot be, to shut our troops up in the city, without a certainty of supplies & no prospect of a relieving force, might prove their destruction - This question can only be decided by officers on the spot in my opinion. To dictate a line of conduct to them from this distance & in ignorance of the essential elements for a proper judgment might be ruinous. -

I think Genl Beauregard in his dispatch of the 6th from Augusta is mistaken as to the 19th & 23rd corps being with Sherman. The 19th with the exception of one division under Emory at Winchester is with Genl Grant. The 23rd Schofields, was on the 4th just below Alex - arrested by ice in the Potomac. It is reputed to be on its way to Grant, & prisoners taken Monday stated it had arrived at City Pt on Sunday. I have informed Genl Beauregard With great respect

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R. E. Lee