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| General Humphrey Marshall |
RICHMOND, November 8, 1862.
Brigadier General HUMPHREY MARSHALL,
Abingdon, Va.:
Complaints are made that Camron's Kentucky Battalion, Miller's Rangers, and Everett's Rangers are marauding in Washington County, and that stragglers from the Fifth Kentucky Regiment, with arms in their hands, are plundering and stealing horses, and that the people of the country are not strong enough to defend themselves. Inquire into and report the facts. I will order the disbanding of such of them as are in the Confederate service, and the enrollment of all conscripts, whether they are Kentuckians or Virginians, if you think it advisable. Use force, if necessary, for the protection of the people of the country, and institute a rigid police in the country around Abingdon. Answer by telegraph.
G. W. RANDOLPH,
Secretary of War.
Official Records, Series I., Vol. 20, Part 2, Page 394.
Marshall had been a politician before the war and served as an emissary to China. A native of Kentucky he was notoriously lax in matters of discipline, to the point where a member of his staff offered to eat the first man Marshall had executed. This letter shows the lax discipline of ranger organizations in general, and specifically in the west.
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