Showing posts with label Department of the Rappahannock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Department of the Rappahannock. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Edwin M. Stanton to Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks, May 1, 1862

WAR DEPARTMENT,
May 1, 1862.
Major-General BANKS:

The President directs that you fall back with the force under your immediate command to Strasburg, or such other point near there as will be convenient for supplies and enable you to hold the passage along the valley of the Shenandoah. General Shields will receive orders within a day or two to pass with his division into the Department of the Rappahannock.

EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 12, Part 3 (Serial No. 18), p. 122

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Brigadier General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, April 6, 1862

CAMP NEAR ALEXANDRIA, Sunday, April 6, 1862.

In my last letter I told you of the change in our destination, and surmised the causes. Yesterday the orders appeared creating the Departments of the Shenandoah and Rappahannock, assigning Banks to the command of one and McDowell to the other. Thus McClellan, at a blow, is deprived of two army corps on which he relied to carry out his plans. It is said an urgent telegram was received from him for McDowell to go down, just as the order was issued taking McDowell's corps from him. Many believe and hope he will resign; I trust he will not commit such a fatal error. He has over one hundred thousand men with him. This force, led by him and enthusiastic in his behalf, can accomplish much, and any success on his part will silence his enemies and reinstate him in favor.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 256-7

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Major General Irvin McDowell to Edwin M. Stanton, May 24, 1862

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE RAPPAHANNOCK,
May 24, 1862. (Received 6 p.m.)

Hon. E. M. STANTON:

The President's order has been received and is in process of execution. This is a crushing blow to us.

IRVIN McDOWELL,
Major-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 12, Part 3 (Serial No. 18), p. 220

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Washington News

WASHINGTON, April 4. – Attorney General Bates has given his opinion that acts of January, and August, 1813, granting pensions for wounds or disabilities are applicable only to the forces thereby created, and will not cover the cases of those called into service by the acts of 22d July last, nor are their widows and orphans entitled to pensions under the act of 4th of July 1836.

Grave doubts may be suggested whether the existing laws make provision for pensions to the widows of those now in service who may die from disease or be killed in battle, and upon the whole question the Attorney General inclines to the opinion that there is no adequate provision of law by which such widows are entitled to a pension in addition to the bounties conferred by the acts of July last, the militia received under the Presidents Proclamation of the 15th of April 1861, which was in accordance with the law of the 2d August, 1813, and in cases of wounds and disabilities, entitled to pensions under its provisions.

Previous to adjournment to-day Senator Trumbull gave notice that he would call up the confiscation bill, and press it until disposed of.

An official war bulletin from the War Department creates two military departments.  First, that portion of Virginia and Maryland, lying between the mountains and the Blue Ridge, to be called the Department of the Shenandoah, to be commanded by Gen. Banks.  Second, that portion of Virginia, east of the Blue Ridge and west of the Potomac and the Fredericksburg and Richmond Railroad, including the district of Columbia and the country between the Patuxet to be called the Department of the Rappahannock, to be under command of Gen. McDowell.


WASHINGTON, April 4. – A military hospital has been ordered to be established and New Albany, Indiana, and Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, has been converted into a military hospital.

The Secretary of War has communicated to Congress his opinion that the present organization of the Medical Bureau is inadequate to the service.  He has authorized the Surgeon General, of New Jersey, under the direction of the Governor, to organize a Volunteer Surgeon Corps, to render medical aid when requested.

A similar organization has been made under the Governor of Pennsylvania, and valuable service has been rendered.

– Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 12, 1862, p. 4