Alfred Roman, The military operations of General Beauregard in the war between the states, 1861 to 1865

Very shortly after this affair, whereby the enemy had gained the possession of a road but lost many lives, General Hancock was met and defeated, at or near Reams's Station, by a Confederate force under Generals A. P. Hill and Hampton. Their hardwon success was conceded by the enemy, though since that time it has been a matter of surprise that General Hancock was not immediately reinforced from General Warren's position, or that the troops sent to relieve him were marched by the longer of the two roads leading to him. The Federal loss was reckoned at 2400, killed, wounded, and missing, out of about 8000 men.¹ Our own loss was severe also, though we have no means now at hand, of ascertaining the exact figures.

Since the battle of Drury's Bluff (May 16th) General Beauregard, the first general commissioned by the Confederate Government, had been in command of only two divisions, numbering together less than 10,000 men of all arms; and from and after the arrival of General Lee at Petersburg (June 18th) he had held a subordinate position, very similar but really inferior to that of a corps commander, whose force generally consisted of three divisions of about 5000 men each. His army (so-called) occupied nearly all the new lines he had established on the night of the 17th of June, from the Appomattox to the old lines where these crossed the Jerusalem plank road. They measured a length of over two miles, and, although commanded by some of the enemy's works in front, had been made quite secure by artificial means.

It is not to be wondered at that such a position had become irksome to General Beauregard. It was all the more so because a very important movement against Washington, through the Shenandoah Valley, had been set on foot and confided to an officer who was gallant and meritorious, but whose rank in the Confederate army was lower than that held by General Beauregard, and whose merit and experience as a strategist had not been tested.