Colonel J. W. Ware
Berryville, Clark County, Virginia

Colonel,

Your letter of the 4th inst. (of the present or current month) has been received.  You have been assigned to the command of the 34th Regiment Virginia Volunteers, and will report for duty to General Joseph E. Johnston, Commanding at Harpers Ferry.   Should General Johnston see fit to detach your regiment on special service in the manner you propose it will be competent for him to do so.  It is not deemed advisable by the President to organize an independent or guerilla force, armed, equipped, and paid by the Confederate States.

                                                       Very respectfully,                                                        Your obedient servant,

                                                       Robert E. Lee                                                        General Commanding

*** The Civil War began on April 12, 1861 with the firing on Fort Sumpter in South Carolina.  This letter from Lee to Josiah Ware was written just 2 short months after the beginning of hostilities.   At this point, Robert E. Lee was not yet in charge of the entire Confederate army. As a brigadier general, and later full general, he was in charge of supervising all Southern forces in Virginia.  It was only after the wounding of General Johnston on May 31, 1862 that Lee was put in command of the famous Army of Northern Virginia.