IV. Brevet Brigadier-General Abbott, commanding post of Wilmington, will send to Smith's Island 500 refugee negroes so assorted as to age and sex that they can take care of themselves. He will send with them ten days' rations and put the whole in charge of an intelligent non-commissioned officer. The rations will be put in charge of Enoch Daniels on Smith's Island, who is charged with distributing them carefully. He will also assign quarters and land to the best of his ability. Should he desire to communicate with the district commander, he can do so by letter left with the commanding officer at Smithville, or by telegraph from Fort Fisher. * VI. Col. N. Gleason, Eighty-seventh Indiana Volunteers, in addition to his present charge, will assume command of all the troops now under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Colvin, One hundred and sixty-ninth New York Volunteers, as soon as the whole force can be properly rationed and equipped. Colonel Gleason will move for Goldsborough or the front, being governed generally by the written instructions delivered to Colonel Colvin, a copy of which is attached.* Agreeably to your request of yesterday, I made preparations to go to Hilton Head to see you. There seeming to be some unwillingness to respond to informal inquiries made by my orders as to the departure of the steamer Cork, I sent a written order to the captain to let me know when he was ready to go. He has just left, apparently paying no regard to my (General Sherman's) order. Please arrest him on his arrival and hold him to proper accountability for disobedience of orders. J. D. WEBSTER, Brigadier-General. Major-General GILLMORE, Hilton Head: SAVANNAH, GA., March 27, 1865. There are probably no arms available for the army in North Carolina, except such as may have been turned in by sick and wounded, and, in the uncertainty as to their number or that of the men to go, I advise that they take their arms with them. J. D. WEBSTER, *Not found, Brigadier-General. HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SAVANNAH, ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL, Hdqrs. Dept. of the South: SIR: The flag-of-truce boat has returned from up the river, and the first load of the wives and children of rebel officers, sixty in number, will leave here next Thursday to be delivered on board a boat from Augusta at Poor Robin, over 100 miles up the Savannah River. C. GROVER, Brevet Major-General, Commanding. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, Hilton Head, S. C., March 27, 1865, Brig. Gen. J. P. HATCH, Commanding, &c., Charleston, S. C.: GENERAL: Brigadier-General Potter has been directed verbally to report to you to talk of the expedition to Sumterville and Florence. Rendezvous the command with as little delay and as quietly as possible at Georgetown. Its strength and composition is to be as follows: Two thousand five hundred infantry, one section of artillery, fifty cavalry (or more, if you can spare them), sixty to seventy engineers. The men should carry forty rounds of ammunition in their cartridgeboxes and three days' rations of hard bread, sugar, and coffee in their haversacks, with a reserve of forty or fifty rounds of ammunition and eight days' rations of bread, sugar, and coffee on pack animals. One hundred and fifty pack-saddles are sent you. I want no wagons with the command if it can be avoided. The only tools which the engineers will require are axes, shovels, and augurs, and these the men must carry. It would be well to issue an ax and a shovel to each infantry company. General Potter and myself have talked the matter over pretty thoroughly, and he is in possession of my views. The medical director has been directed to send five or six ambulances with the command, and to designate a suitable medical officer to go with it as senior. Dispatch is quite necessary in the preparations. I expect to be at Georgetown on Friday morning. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Q. A. GILLMORE, Major-General of Volunteers. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH; Rear-Admiral DAHLGREN, Commanding South Atlantic Blockading Squadron: ADMIRAL: General Hatch, commanding at Charleston, informed me on the 20th instant that he had requested your assistance in examining the Santee River and some of the streams flowing into Winyah Bay with a view to the selection of the best route for an expedition to reach Sumterville and Florence, S. C. Brigadier-General Potter will command the expedition, and I respectfully request for him such co-operation as you may be willing and able to afford. General Potter has been directed to confer with you upon this matter. I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, Q. A. GILLMORE, Major-General of Volunteers. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, Rear-Admiral DAHLGREN, Commanding South Atlantic Blockading Squadron: ADMIRAL: I have to inform you that on or about the 8th of next month I expect to receive over 5,000 prisoners at Darien, Ga., and if not incompatible with the interests of the naval service on this coast I would like to have a couple of gun-boats in the Altamaha River near Darien at that time. I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, Q. A. GILLMORE, Major-General of Volunteers. Hon. SECRETARY OF WAR: CITY POINT, VA., March 28, 1865. After your explanation I think it is little or no difference whether the Fort Sumter ceremony takes place on the 13th or 14th. General Sherman tells me he is well acquainted with James Yeatman, and that he thinks him almost the best man in the country for anything he will undertake. Hon. GIDEON WELLES, A. LINCOLN. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington City, March 28, 1865. Navy Department, Secretary, &c.: SIR: I have the honor to transmit to you a copy of the President's order* in relation to raising the flag of the United States upon the ruins of Fort Sumter by Major-General Anderson on the 14th day of April next. You will observe that the President directs that the naval forces at Charleston, and their commander on that station, be invited to participate in the ceremonies of the occasion. It gives me pleasure through you to communicate that invitation, and I shall be happy to confer with you in regard to the ceremonies befitting that occasion, and to have your aid in directing the respective parts which shall be taken by the naval and military forces. For that purpose I will have the honor of calling upon you in half an hour from this time. Your obedient servant, EDWIN M. STANTON, FORT MONROE, VA., March 28, 1865—4 p. m. Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.: Just arrived. Wait to meet General Sherman, who will be here at 8 o'clock. FORT MONROE, March 28, 1865—7.30 a. m. Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON: General McCallum has just arrived on Baltimore boat. I delivered him a copy of your telegram.* He will leave at once for City Point. WM. L. JAMES, Brevet Major and Assistant Quartermaster. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington City, March 28, 1865-10.45 a. m. Major-General SHERMAN, City Point: General McCallum is on his way from Fortress Monroe to City Point to report to you. From him you can get all the information you desire respecting rolling-stock, railroads, &c., and you will please give him such instructions as you desire him to follow. Your brother, Hon. John Sherman, left here last night for City Point. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. Hon. E. M. STANTON: CITY POINT, VA., March 28, 1865. I await the arrival of General McCallum until his arrival here at 3 p. m., when I will take him with me to New Berne. Before leaving I will arrange with General Ingalls and Admiral Porter for barges and tugs to transport stores from New Berne up to Kinston, where my wagons can meet them and fill up. I will be at Goldsborough the day after to-morrow. Whilst here also I shall make complete arrangements for my next port of entry at Winton, on the Chowan, or Halifax, on the Roanoke. I have had a long interview with General Grant and the President, and think that everything wears a most favorable aspect. I suppose John Sherman to be with General McCallum, and will prevail on him to go with me as far as Goldsborough. Many thanks for the prompt attention given to our wants. W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, March 28, 1865–7.30 p. m. Maj. Gen. W. T. SHERMAN, Fortress Monroe: God speed you; and that He may have you in his keeping, shield you from every danger, and crown you with victory, is my earnest prayer. E. M. STANTON, * See Stanton to James, 27th, p. 34. HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, General DODGE, Norfolk: General McCallum will meet me to-day here at City Point, or at Old Point Comfort. He has sent down to Morehead City several locomotives and cars of the narrow gauge, and I will see him before taking any from Norfolk. General Ingalls has promised me a fair share of barges, and I will procure his order for them this morning. I will be down to Old Point to-night on the navy boat Bat. W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General. WASHINGTON, March 28, 1865-10 c. m. Brig. Gen. R. INGALLS, City Point: We have barely enough rolling-stock of narrow gauge to do the work on roads in operation in Virginia. For the roads in North Carolina we have thirty locomotives and 350 cars of five-feet gauge, for which we have been trying to procure transportation since the 10th of February. Of this number ten locomotives and seventy-two cars have been shipped to Morehead City and the remainder are being shipped as fast as transports are provided, the intention being to change the gauge of the road and use five-feet rolling-stock. The gauge of the road can be changed its entire length in from two to three days, and we shall then have ample rolling-stock without stripping the roads in Virginia. There are at New Berne five locomotives in working order and eighty cars of four feet eight and a half inch gauge, and no more of this gauge on the way. We can, if desired, ship from Alexandria three to five locomotives and, say, fifty cars of narrow gauge, for if an emergency requires we can strip the Orange and Alexandria road and send three times the above amount of narrow-gauge stock. D. C. MCCALLUM, Per WHITON. CITY POINT, VA., March 28, 1865—4.30 p.m. General D. H. RUCKER: (Received 5.40 p. m.) General Sherman wishes to have from twenty to thirty barges or canal-boats, with tugs of proper draft of water, to transport supplies from Morehead City to Kinston and afterward in the Chowan. He wants them at once, if practicable, as the railroad is not sufficiently effective. These boats should be sent by the canal. Those used by General Abbot for siege ammunition cannot be spared. GENERAL ORders, No. 51. R. INGALLS. WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, By direction of the President, the Fourteenth and Twentieth Army Corps will constitute the Army of Georgia, of which Maj. Gen. H. W. Slocum is assigned to the command. By order of the Secretary of War: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General. |