repair. In this way communication may be cut off for six or seven days. A pontoon bridge can be relaid as soon as the river begins to fall, and communication opened within a few hours. Respectfully, your obedient servant, MAX WEBER, Brigadier-General. CUMBERLAND, August 9, 1864. Brigadier-General DUFFIE, Hancock: General Averell is now embarking his troops on the cars at New Creek and will be at Hancock to-morrow. B. F. KELLEY, HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DISTRICT OF HARPER'S FERRY, Brig. Gen. A. N. DUFFIE, Harper's Ferry, August 9, 1864. Commanding First Cavalry Division, Hancock, Md.: General Sheridan is at Harper's Ferry. Ḥ. M. BURLEIGH, Assistant Adjutant-General. NEW CREEK, VA., August 9, 1864. Major-General HUNTER: I request that the detachment of the Eighth Ohio Cavalry at Beverly be relieved by Ohio National Guard and join the division. Brigadier-General AVERELL, WM. W. AVERELL, CUMBERLAND, August 9, 1864-4 p. m. New Creek: General Duffié is at Hancock. Major-General Sheridan has been appointed to command all the troops in the three following departments: Department of West Virginia, the Middle Department, and the Department of the Susquehanna, with headquarters at Harper's Ferry. B. F. KELLEY, CUMBERLAND, August 9, 1864-4 p. m. Brigadier-General AVERELL, Captain Harrison could not leave to-day. Make requisition on his agent at New Creek, Mr. Winants, for whatever you may need. Have the cars arrived from the west to transport your troops? Mr. Lyon, the agent at New Creek, will render you prompt assistance in moving your command. Please send for him and inform him what you want done. The cars are on their way to you. B. F. KELLEY, [AUGUST 9, 1864.—For Averell's congratulatory orders, see p. 505.] Major-General SHERIDAN, CUMBERLAND August 9, 1864-12 m. Harper's Ferry: I reported to General Hunter at 11 p. m. last night General Averell's dispatch to me. He arrived at New Creek yesterday evening and is now awaiting cars to move his command, in obedience to your orders. A portion of his troops will move this evening. I send you copy of General Averell's dispatch of the 8th.* B. F. KELLEY, HARPER'S FERRY, August 9, 1864. Brigadier-General KELLEY: The news of Averell's success reached me by your telegram last night and was at once transmitted to Washington. I want you to commence repairing the telegraph this way as far as Martinsburg and I will order General Weber to repair the line from this direction to that place. I think after to-morrow there will be no danger. Governor BOREMAN, Wheeling: P. H. SHERIDAN, Major-General, Commanding. CUMBERLAND, August 9, 1864. Brig. Gen. J. C. Sullivan has been ordered to assume command of all the forces in the Kanawha Valley, with headquarters at Charleston. B. F. KELLEY, HEADQUARTERS, Cumberland, August 9, 1864. COMMANDING OFFICER SIXTH WEST VIRGINIA CAVALRY, North Branch: The general commanding directs that you send, without delay, a scout, to consist of forty men, in charge of a reliable officer, to Frankfort, thence via Springfield to Romney, W. Va. A prompt report of all matters of interest will be expected. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Lieutenant and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General. * See p. 734. Brigadier-General KELLEY: CLARKSBURG, August 9, 1864. Scouts sent toward Monterey report no rebel force of importance in that vicinity, but 300 or 400 are said to be at Franklin. N. WILKINSON. Brigadier-General KELLEY: CLARKSBURG, August 9, 1864. At 9 p. m. I have the following: BUCKHANNON. Cannonading has been heard to-day in direction of Beverly. The wire between here and that place is down. I have mounted part of my force for scouts. H. H. HAGANS, Captain. N. WILKINSON. CLARKSBURG, August 9, 1864-9.30 p. m. Brigadier-General KELLEY: Am in communication with Beverly. The cannonading is east of there; supposed at Winchester or Moorefield. N. WILKINSON, Colonel. Major-General WALLACE, WASHINGTON, August 9, 1864—3.20 p. m. Commanding: Select three 100-days' Pennsylvania regiments of your command and order one to each of the following points: Johnson's Island, Ohio; Rock Island, Ill.; Chicago, Ill. In addition, send a Massachusetts 10 days' regiment to Indianapolis, Ind. Report to this office when regiments will start, and inform Major-General Heintzelman, commanding, Columbus, Ohio, of departure of each. By order: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General. BALTIMORE, MD., August 9, 1864. (Received 12 p. m.) Col. E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General: The four regiments will be put en route at once in accordance with your orders. Major-General Heintzelman will be informed of time of departure. LEW. WALLACE. Major-General of Volunteers. SPECIAL ORDERS, HDQRS. MIDDLE DEPT., STH ARMY CORPS, * * * * * 5. The several companies of the Seventh Regiment Delaware Volunteer Militia (thirty-days' service) will be relieved from duty by other troops of the Third Separate Brigade and ordered to report to the commanding officer at Wilmington to be mustered out and paid off at the expiration of their term of service in accordance with the mustering regulations of the army. Brig. Gen. H. H. Lockwood is charged with the execution of this order. 9. In accordance with orders from the War Department, the Sixtieth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia (100-days' service), Col. A. D. Wass commanding, will be put en route at once to report to the commanding officer at Indianapolis, Ind. The quartermaster's department will furnish the necessary transportation. Brigadier-General Lockwood is charged with the execution of this order. 10. In accordance with orders from the War Department, the One hundred and ninety-third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia (100-days' service), Col. J. B. Clark commanding, will be put en route at once to report to the commanding officer at Johnson's Island, Ohio. The quartermaster's department will furnish the necessary transportation. Brigadier-General Lockwood is charged with the execution of this order. 11. In accordance with orders from the War Department, the One Hundred and ninety-seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia (100-days' service), Col. J. R. Haslett commanding, will be put en route at once to report to the commanding officer at Rock Island, Ill. The quartermaster's department will furnish the necessary transportation. Brigadier-General Lockwood is charged with the execution of this order. 12. In accordance with orders from the War Department, the One hundred and ninety-sixth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia (100-days' service), Col. Harmanus Neff commanding, will be put en route at once to report to the commanding officer at Chicago, Ill. The quartermaster's department will furnish the necessary transportation. Brigadier-General Lockwood is charged with the execution of this order. By command of Major-General Wallace: SAML. B. LAWRENCE, EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, Harrisburg, August 9, 1864. TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA: GENTLEMEN: I have called you together in advance of your adjourned session for the purpose of taking some action for the defense of the State. From the commencement of the present rebellion Pennsylvania has done her whole duty to the Government. Lying, as her southern counties do, in the immediate vicinity of the border, and thus exposed to sudden invasion, a selfish policy would have led her to retain a sufficient part of her military force for her own defense. In so doing she would have failed in her duty to the whole country. Not only would her men have been withheld from the field of general operations, but the loans and taxation which would have become necessary would have, to a large extent, diminished the ability of her people to comply with the pecuniary demands of the United States. She would also have necessarily interfered with and hampered all the military action of the Government and made herself, to some extent, responsible for any failures and shortcomings that may have occurred. In pursuance of the policy thus deliberately adopted this State has steadily devoted her men to the general service. From the beginning she has always been among the first to respond to the call of the United States, as is shown by her history, from the three-months' men and the Reserve Corps to the present moment. Thus faithfully fulfilling all her own obligations, she has a right to be defended by the national force, as part of a common country; any other view would be absurd and unjust. She, of course, cannot complain when she suffers by the necessary contingencies of war. The reflections that have, in too many quarters, been made upon the people of her southern counties, are most unfounded. They were invaded in 1862, when a Union army much superior to any force of the rebels (and on which they had of course a right to rely) was lying in their immediate vicinity and north of the Potomac. They were again invaded in 1863, after the defeat of the Union forces under Milroy at Winchester, and they have again suffered in 1864, after the defeat of the Union forces under Crook and Averell. How could an agricultural people, in an open country, be expected to rise suddenly and beat back hostile forces which had defeated organized veteran armies of the Government? It is of course expected that the inhabitants of an invaded country will do what is in their power to resist the invaders, and the facts hereinafter stated will show, I think, that the people of these counties have not failed in this duty. If Pennsylvania, by reason of her geographical position, has required to be defended by the national force, it has only been against the common enemy. It has never been necessary to weaken the army in the field, by sending heavy detachments of veterans to save her cities from being devastated by small bands of ruffians composed of their own inhabitants. Nor have her people been disposed to sneer at the great masses of law abiding citizens, in any other State, who have required such protection. Yet, when a brutal enemy, pursuing a defeated body of Union forces, crosses our border and burns a defenseless town, this horrid barbarity, instead of firing the hearts of all the people of our common country, is actually, in some quarters, made the occasion of mocks and gibes at the unfortunate sufferers, thousands of whom have been rendered houseless, and these heartless scoffs proceed from the very men who, when the State authorities, foreseeing the danger, were taking precautionary measures, ridiculed the idea of there being any danger, sneered at the exertions to prepare for meeting it, and succeeded to some extent in thwarting their efforts to raise forces. These men are themselves morally responsible for the calamity over which they now chuckle and rub their hands. It might have been hoped-nay, we had a right to expect that the people of the loyal States, engaged in a common effort to preserve their Government and all that is dear to freemen, would have forgotten, at least for the time, their wretched local jealousies and sympathized with all their loyal fellow-citizens wherever resident within the borders of our common country. It should be remembered that the original source of the present rebellion was in |