4 night all have crossed. Night before last were concentrating for a move in some direction, no one knows where. I have no faith in this, but think perhaps the guerrillas have all concentrated in a body to try and capture or attack your train which starts for General Hunter. MAX WEBER, Brigadier-General. HEADQUARTERS, Harper's Ferry, W. Va., June 23, 1864. Col. W. P. MAULSBY, The detachments of cavalry at Duffield's and Kearneysville, which relieved the Sixth Virginia Mounted Rifles, will break camp and march to Martinsburg, Va., at 3 a. m. to-morrow, and report to T. A. Meysenburg, assistant adjutant-general. They will be relieved by detachment from this post. By order of Brig. Gen. Max Weber, commanding. Col. W. P. MAULSBY, H. W. PITCHER, Lieutenant and Aide-de-Camp. Commanding Post, Martinsburg: It is impossible to send detachments of cavalry from this post to relieve the detachments at Duffield's and Kearneysville. You will order the detachments to move at 3 a. m. to-morrow, as ordered in telegram. Cavalry will be sent you as soon as possible. You will instruct the infantry at Duffield's and Kearneysville to be vigilant and on the alert. By order of Brig. Gen. Max Weber, commanding. Maj. JOHN S. WITCHER, H. W. PITCHER, Lieutenant and Aide-de-Camp. HEADQUARTERS POST, Charleston, W. Va., June 23, 1864. Commanding Third West Virginia Cavalry: SIR: Your communication of the 22d instant is received, and in reply will say that you have permission to remove your command from Hurricane to Coalsmouth. Upon arriving there you will send the company of infantry stationed there to Hurricane Bridge. I will have in a few days a sufficient supply of horses to mount all the cavalry commands in the Valley. In reference to the civil authorities arresting a soldier of your command depends entirely upon the nature of the case. You can make a statement of the facts connected with the case and forward it to these headquarters. If the contingencies of the service will permit, you can visit Charleston in a few days. I wish to have a personal interview with you. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. P. MOHLRATH, Major, Commanding Post. Major-General SIGEL: GREEN SPRING, June 23, 1864. My command will leave here at 12 o'clock, and march to-day and all night, and arrive in Martinsburg to-morrow evening. Can I go down by rail on night train and be to see you in advance of the men? J. HIGGINS, Colonel. Maj. Gen. F. SIGEL: PARKERSBURG, June 23, 1864. Received the order to move 4 p. m. Have forwarded teams to dlizabeth for Company E. They will be here to-morrow. ComHanies H and F will meet in Clarksburg. JAS. L. SIMPSON, Major, Commanding Detachment. Major-General SIGEL : PARKERSBURG, June 23, 1864. It will be impossible for my companies to reach the railroad before to-morrow morning. I will act with all possible dispatch. What will Lieutenant Mountz, Company A, do with the ordnance in Fort Boreman, for which he is responsible? J. L. SIMPSON, 3. The Tenth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps, now serving with Brigadier-General Briggs, commanding Draft Rendezvous, Alexandria, will proceed without delay to Point Lookout, Md., and be reported to the commanding officer of that post for duty, to relieve the Fourth Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers. The Fourth Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers, upon being relieved, will proceed at once to Bermuda Hundred, Va., and be reported to the commanding officer Army of the Potomac. The quartermaster's department will furnish the necessary transportation. 4. The detachment U. S. cavalry now serving at Point Lookout and vicinity will be at once relieved and forwarded to the Army of the Potomac, via Bermuda Hundred. 5. A mounted patrol of eighty men will be organized from the command at Point Lookout for duty at that post and vicinity. Hereafter no expedition for service away from that post will be organized at or sent from it without special authority from the War Department. WASHINGTON, June 24, 1864-11.30 a. m. Lieutenant-General GRANT, Bermuda Hundred, Va.: As stated in my former dispatch, Major-General Stahel was sent back by General Hunter to collect troops and escort to him a train of ammunition. General Stahel is nearly ready to start, but has no information as to where he can find General Hunter. Should your information be such that you deem General Stahel's expedition too perilous to be undertaken, please telegraph to that effect. Otherwise he will proceed to do the best he can up the Shenandoah Valley. H. W. HALLECK, Major-General and Chief of Staff. SPECIAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA, No. 117. Sweet Springs, Va., June 24, 1864. 1. This command will move, precisely at 3 p. m. this day, for White Sulphur Springs. General Crook's division will be in the advance, followed immediately by the Artillery Brigade, under Capt. H. A. Du Pont, chief of artillery. General Sullivan's division will come next; two regiments from his division will be detailed to guard the wagon train, and the commanding officer of these regiments will at once report in person to General Duffié, commanding First Cavalry Division, for instructions and orders. General Duffie's division will form the rear guard of the column, and will be responsible for the safety of the train. 3. Colonel Powell's brigade, of General Averell's division, is hereby transferred to the command of General Crook's division. Colonel Powell will be immediately ordered by General Averell to report with his brigade to General Crook. By order of Major-General Hunter: [CHAS. G. HALPINE,] Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA, Brig. Gen. W. W. AVERELL, Commanding Second Cavalry Division: GENERAL: The major-general commanding directs that you proceed at once with your command and encamp at four or five miles from White Sulphur Springs, on the road to Covington; that plenty of grass may be obtained at the Springs for the artillery and train horses. Immediately upon arriving at your camp, the commanding general directs that you picket strongly all the roads, and obtain all the information in your power and communicate it at once to him. I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, P. G. BIER, Assistant Adjutant-General. SPECIAL ORDERS, HDQRS. FIRST CAV. DIV., DEPT. OF W. Va., I. The First New York (Lincoln) Cavalry is hereby transferred from the First Brigade to the Second Brigade, and will report to Col. John E. Wynkoop, commanding, for duty without delay. II. Company M, Fifteenth New York Cavalry, is hereby detached from its regiment for duty at these headquarters. They will report immediately. By command of Brig. Gen. A. N. Duffié: Brig. Gen. B. F. KELLEY, Cumberland: E. W. CLARK, JR., Assistant Adjutant-General. CLARKSBURG, June 24, 1864. The following just received from Beverly : Scouts just in who were sent to General Hunter and have been out seven days; went to Shenandoah, not south of Staunton pike. They report 1,500 rebels in Calf Pasture Valley and 3,500 in Buffalo Gap. Scouts went as far west as Monterey. General Hunter is reported as being between Staunton and Lynchburg, with the forces of Pickett, Breckinridge, and other commands around him. Heavy cannonading has been heard in his direction for six days by the scouts. The country is so closely guarded that it is impossible to get through. The information was gained from a known Union man of Augusta County. H. W. HUNTER, Major. N. WILKINSON, Colonel. (Copy forwarded by General Sigel to Adjutant-General U. S. Army, June 25, 1864.) Col. N. WILKINSON: JANELEW, LEWIS COUNTY, June 24, 1864. SIR: I have now returned from a twelve days' scout in the counties of Lewis, Braxton, and Nicholas, and find that in the county of Nicholas Lieutenant Long, of Company I, Seventeenth Virginia (rebel) Cavalry, is there with from forty-five to fifty men, without horses and mostly without arms, and those armed are only with revolvers. Captain Tuning, rebel, in Braxton, has eighteen men in same condition. Lieutenant Skinner, of Captain Waldo's command, has nine, and another squad of fifteen, commander not known, besides many stragglers. Our State guards are of little use, and our country is in great danger of being robbed and plundered of all our horses and property. Now, I propose for your consideration a plan that I think best: Give me fifteen or twenty men, such as I may select from the Tenth Virginia Regiment, Captain Rollyson's and Captain Wilkinson's State guards, and give me a reasonable compensation, and I will go at once and rid the country of them. There are men anxious to go with me. I would make my headquarters at Janelew, and make stolen marches upon them that would exterminate them. There should be one company placed at Weston or Bulltown to assist me, and that is enough. It is better there than a whole regiment of strange troops. I desire you to make this proposition to the authorities and ask their consideration before it is too late for us, and let me know soon what can be done.. Your most obedient servant, [First indorsement.] HDQRS. FORCES WEST OF PIEDMONT, DEPT. OF W. Va., Respectfully forwarded. Information is also had from other sources in regard to bands of rebels being in Braxton and Nicholas Counties; also in Gilmer, Roane, Wirt, and Jackson Counties. Now that the troops are being entirely withdrawn from Lewis, Gilmer, Wirt, and Wood Counties (late occupied by the companies of the Eleventh Virginia Infantry), the inhabitants will severely suffer from depredations of these outlaws. If Company I, Sixth Virginia Infantry, at Green Spring Run, and Company G, Sixth Virginia Infantry, at New Creek, could be sent here, such disposition could be made of them as would check the marauding of these rebel squads and tranquillize the country, which is now in a considerable state of uneasiness. Mr. Pierson is a scout duly appointed by Major-General Sigel, and is an energetic, reliable Union man, and perfectly familiar with the counties adjoining Braxton, &c. N. WILKINSON, Colonel, Commanding, &c. [Second indorsement.] HEADQUARTERS, Cumberland, Md., June 30, 1864. Respectfully returned to Colonel Wilkinson. The necessity of there being troops in Braxton and the other counties referred to by Colonel Wilkinson is well understood, but at present the services of the companies of the Sixth West Virginia Infantry spoken of cannot be dispensed with in their present locality. The request of Mr. Pierson, that a detail be made and placed under his command for the purpose of scouting in the before-mentioned counties, cannot be considered, as details of this kind are contrary to all regulations. Soldiers cannot be placed under command of a citizen. Mr. Pierson must, therefore, confine his operations to his legitimate business, as citizen scout. By order of Brigadier-General Kelley: C. A. FREEMAN, Lieutenant and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General. SPECIAL ORDERS, WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, June 24, 1864. No. 218. 25. Brig. Gen. Thomas A. Rowley, U. S. Volunteers, will report in person to Major-General Couch, U. S. Volunteers, commanding the Department of the Susquehanna, for assignment to duty. |