STRAWBERRY PLAINS, January 6, 1864. MOSSY CREEK, January 6, 1864. General E. E. POTTER: The following received: General PARKE: The Georgia lieutenant was not disposed to answer questions. From privates I get the following: Georgia battalion cavalry, Giltner's brigade, Ransom's division, camped near Lawrence's Mill. Buckner's division, Bush. Johnson's command, at Russellville; Hood's division at Morristown. A prisoner from Hampton Legion, of McLaws' division, was brought in a few days since; reports his division at Morristown. W. L. ELLIOTT, Brigadier-General, Commanding. JNO. G. PARKE, Major-General. HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, Maj. Gen. JOHN G. PARKE, Comdg. Forces in the Field: GENERAL: General Foster directs me to send you the following extracts from a letter received this morning from Joseph A. Cooper, colonel Sixth East Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, by General Carter, provost-marshal-general. The commanding general desires you to have the matter investigated, and if found true, to take such measures as will prevent their recurrence. The political antecedents of a rebel should not be considered, and if privileges are granted any one, it should be to those who show their devotion to the Union: Rebels here are treated better than Union men. The general commanding this brigade gives rebels guards and protection papers, even before they have taken the oath, while when Union men call for guards they are referred to regimental commanders, with the suggestion that if there are any barefooted or convalescent men that they be sent to guard such Union man's property until they become able for duty. The men are ordered and peremptorily required to guard rebels, when they are almost barefooted and very thinly clad, when no guard in a single instance has been furnished a Union man, although they have been repeatedly called for. In one instance a Union man applied for permission to have 2 bushels of corn ground for the use of his family, and was refused, arrested, and confined in the guard-house, and for aught I know still remains there; while one Sam Smith, an arch traitor, got permission from him, and an order to that effect, to have 10 bushels ground. He is hunting up frivolous complaints against officers and seeking to have them arrested. He also tells old Democratic rebel citizens that if the country is ever saved it must be done by the old Democratic party. This is all known throughout the command, and is creating great dissatisfaction both among officers and men, and will, if persisted in, I fear, ruin the command. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. F. ANDERSON, Major and Aide-de-Camp. CHATTANOOGA, TENN., January 6, 1864-4 p. m. Col. E. D. TOWNSEND, Washington, D. C.: Your telegram of 12.45 p. m. this date received. Orders will be given General John C. Starkweather to report as ordered.* MajorGenerals Hooker, Rousseau, and Butterfield can be spared at this time for a court-martial. GEO. H. THOMAS, Major-General, Commanding. *For court-martial duty. HDQRS. ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH CORPS, Maj. Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Comdg. Eleventh Corps: I am directed by the major-general commanding to acknowledge your letter of yesterday concerning the irregularity and deficiency of supplies for your corps, and to add that he desires to make it the subject of a communication to the headquarters of the department in order to prevent its recurrence, if practicable. But before doing this he would like to be furnished with specific data in regard to clothing, forage, and rations, including fresh beef. He would like to be informed what forage your animals have been deficient in within the last week or ten days, and also what failure there has been in furnishing rations, or parts of rations, to your men during the same time. Complaints have reached him in regard to beef. If there has been an omission in the supply of this part of the ration, the general desires that he may be informed, and also what steps were taken to obtain it, and the reasons given for not furnishing it. When these facts are properly laid before the general commanding the department, it is believed that no further apprehensions need be felt for a continuation from delinquency. The general fully coincides with you in the opinion that a supply for a few days should be kept constantly on hand. If otherwise, a steam-boat accident or an adverse wind may cause destitution and suffering. Very respectfully, H. W. PERKINS, Lieut., Aide-de-Camp, and Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen. PULASKI, January 6, 1864. Maj. R. M. SAWYER: One of our scouts has just arrived from Johnston's army; says it is at Dalton, and [reported] not to exceed 25,000 effective men. One brigade of Martin's cavalry at Cave Springs. State militia at Rome, Coosaville, and Gadsden. All stores, hospitals, &c., that were at Rome have all been removed south. No fortifications near this army. Wheeler and Wharton have been ordered back from East Tennessee, and Roddey is guarding north bank of Tennessee from Flint River to Bear Creek. There is great desertion in Tennessee, North Alabama, and Mississippi troops. G. M. DODGE, HDQRS. THIRD DIVISION, 15TH ARMY CORPS, Col. J. BANBURY, Comdg. Third Brigade: January 6, 1864. COLONEL: As one regiment of General Morgan L. Smith's division will arrive here this p. m., the Fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry can move with the rest of the command to-morrow morning. You will detail from your command 25 men, under a commissioned officer, for guard duty, to remain with the stores on the cars and guard them to their destination. By order of Brig. Gen. John E. Smith: M. ROCHESTER, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE, Maj. Gen. U. S. GRANT, Comdg. Mil. Div. of the Miss., Chattanooga, Tenn.: I leave for Columbus and Memphis at 4 p. m. to-day. General W. S. Smith is supposed to be crossing the Tennessee to-day. I will aim to re-enforce him with cavalry, and with infantry occupy the attention of the enemy, so as to enable him to reach Meridian and, if possible, Selma. The Yazoo and Red Rivers are reported as too low to admit of navigation. There is no interruption to the boats on the Mississippi at this time. W. T SHERMAN, Major-General, Commanding. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE, Brig. Gen. A. J. SMITH, Comdg. District of Columbus, Ky., Jackson, Tenn.: GENERAL: I am not well informed of your present position, and therefore cannot order you clearly and positively. I want to be prepared to embark all the infantry that can be spared from this district and to move all the cavalry to some point on the Charleston road about La Fayette or Collierville. The infantry could embark here or at Memphis. You will, therefore, order the cavalry to move in good order to some point on the Charleston road west of Grand Junction; to report to me by telegraph and letter, or General Hurlbut at Memphis, and you may move the infantry of your army in the field back to Columbus or to Memphis, as you prefer. Report immediately by the most practicable way the route by which you move and the time when your troops will reach the Mississippi River. There is no need of haste, but punish the country well for permitting the guerrillas among them. Take freely the horses, mules, cattle, &c., of the hostile or indifferent inhabitants, and let them all understand that if from design or weakness they permit their country to be used by the public enemy they must bear the expense of the troops sent to expel them; also notify them that we will soon begin to banish all people who are deemed opposed to the re-establishment of civil order. I want your cavalry to feed high and have their horses in good order. This cold weather is hard on your men, and they should be allowed to use freely the houses and fuel of the country. The people must expect us to treat them as enemies, unless they assist us in our efforts to restore civil order. Jackson, Trenton, and Brownsville deserve no mercy at our hands, but in counties where the people have acted properly a broad distinction should be made. Iattach no importance to oaths or opinions, but the people must be construed friends or enemies according to their general behavior. I want to hear from you about the 12th or 13th instant. I am, with respect, yours, truly, W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General, Commanding. Governor BRAMLETTE, EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, January 6, 1864–2 p. m. Frankfort, Ky.: Yours of yesterday received. Nothing is known here about General Foster's order, of which you complain, beyond the fair presumption that it comes from General Grant, and that it has an object which, if you understood, you would be loth to frustrate. True, these troops are, in strict law, only to be removed by my order; but General Grant's judgment would be the highest incentive to me to make such order. Nor can I understand how doing so is bad faith and dishonor, nor yet how it so exposes Kentucky to ruin. Military men here do not perceive how it exposes Kentucky, and I am sure Grant would not permit it if it so appeared to him. Major-General GRANT: A. LINCOLN. FRANKFORT, KY., General Boyle has been ordered, on 23d December, by MajorGeneral Foster, to send all organized troops in Kentucky, except small garrison at depots, to Knoxville. This order takes the forces raised under special act for Kentucky defense, will expose the State to desolation by home rebels and guerrillas, kept down by their presence, and will occasion the destruction of your southern communications through Kentucky by guerrillas. The twelve months' troops were all raised under the act for State defense and to relieve other troops on that duty. T. E. BRAMLETTE, Governor. GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE CUMBERLAND No. 6. Chattanooga, Tenn., January 6, 1864. It having been reported to these headquarters that, between 7 and 8 o'clock on the evening of the 23d ultimo, within 1 miles of the village of Mulberry, Lincoln County, Tenn., a wagon which had become detached from a foraging train belonging to the United States was attacked by guerrillas, and the officer in command of the foraging party, First Lieutenant Porter, Company A, Twenty-seventh Indiana Volunteers, the teamster, wagon-master, and two other soldiers who had been sent to load the train (the latter four unarmed), captured. They were immediately mounted and hurried off, the guerrillas avoiding the roads until their party was halted, about 1 o'clock in the morning, on the bank of Elk River, where the rebels stated they were going into camp for the night. The hands of the prisoners were then tied behind them, and they were robbed of everything of value about their persons. They were next drawn up in line, about 5 paces in front of their captors, and one of the latter, who acted as leader, commanded, "ready," and the whole party immediately fired upon them. One of the prisoners was shot through the head and killed instantly and three were wounded. Lieutenant Porter was not hit. He immediately ran, was followed and fired upon three times by one of the party, and, finding that he was about to be overtaken, threw himself over a precipice into the river, and succeeding in getting his hands loose, swam to the opposite side, and, although pursued to that side and several times fired upon, he, after twenty-four hours of extraordinary exertions and great exposure, reached a house, whence he was taken to Tullahoma, where he now lies in a critical situation. The others, after being shot, were immediately thrown into the river. Thus the murder of 3 men, Newell E. Orcutt, Ninth Independent Battery Ohio Volunteer Artillery; John W. Drought, Company H, Twenty-second Wisconsin Volunteers, and George W. Jacobs, Company D, Twenty-second Wisconsin Volunteers, was accomplished by shooting and drowning. The fourth, James W. Foley, Ninth Independent Battery Ohio Volunteer Artillery, is now lying in hospital, having escaped by getting his hands free while in the water. For these atrocious and cold-blooded murders, equaling in savage ferocity any ever committed by the most barbarous tribes on the continent, committed by rebel citizens of Tennessee, it is ordered that the property of all other rebel citizens living within a circuit of 10 miles of the place where these men were captured be assessed, each in his due proportion, according to his wealth, to make up the sum of $30,000, to be divided among the families who were dependent upon the murdered men for support, as follows: Ten thousand dollars to be paid to the widow of John W. Drought, of North Cape, Racine County, Wis., for the support of herself and two children. Ten thousand dollars to be paid to the widow of George W. Jacobs, of Delavan, Walworth County, Wis., for the support of herself and one child. Ten thousand dollars to be divided between the aged mother and sister of Newell E. Orcutt, of Burton, Geauga County, Ohio. Should the persons assessed fail, within one week after notice shall have been served upon them, to pay in the amount of their tax in money, sufficient of their personal property shall be seized and sold at public auction to make up the amount. Maj. Gen. H. W. Slocum, U. S. Volunteers, commanding Twelfth Army Corps, is charged with the execution of this order. The men who committed these murders, if caught, will be summarily executed, and any persons executing them will be held guiltless and will receive the protection of this army; and all persons who are suspected of having aided, abetted, or harbored these guerrillas will be immediately arrested and tried by military commission. By command of Major-General Thomas: WM. D. WHIPPLE, Assistant Adjutant-General. II. Col. A. V. Kautz, Second Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, will proceed to Camp Nelson, Ky., and organize the regiments of East Tennessee mounted troops now at Camp Nelson and Camp Burnside. |