Will you permit the
steamboat men to celebrate the fourth of July. By the firing of cannon from
their respective steamers at sunrise & sunset holding a meeting reading of
Declaration of independence &c.
_______________
Grant’s reply, reply,
"Yes," was noted on the bottom of this telegram.
SOURCE: John Y.
Simon, Editor, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 8, p. 470
[Rawlins drafted his
reply on the bottom of this telegram:]
"I will if I
can find one"
SOURCE: John Y.
Simon, Editor, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 8, p. 470
Boys very uneasy
along the river cannot you send me glad tidings something that I can depend
upon for fourth of July.
SOURCE: John Y.
Simon, Editor, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 8, p. 470
Vicksburg will
probably be surrendered at 10 oclock today, the terms have not yet been fully
settled, will be by nine oclock, will send you word. Dont go off half cocked[.]
SIR: It was my
purpose to have come to headquarters yesterday, but the importance of knowing
the ground in this quarter, so broken and complicated, induced me to continue
what I had begun, and I continued my exploration. Big Black River is so easily
passable at many points that I am forced to extend my lines to watch all, and
the result of my personal observations is contained in an order made last
night, which is now being carried into effect. I found the enemy watching with
cavalry an easy ford at Messinger's house. The family consisting of many women,
whose husbands and brothers were evidently serving an easy purpose of keeping
up communications, so I moved them all by force, leaving a fine house filled
with elegant furniture and costly paintings to the chances of war. Also the
family of Hill, with other war widows, at a place on the Birdsong road, is
removed to a harmless place within our lines. These may appeal to the tender
heart of our commanding general, but he will not reverse my decision when he
knows a family accessible to the enemy—keen scouts—can collect and impart more
information than the most expert spies. Our volunteer pickets and patrols
reveal names and facts in their innocence which, if repeated by these women,
give the key to our points.
As a general thing,
the valley of Big Black River above the bridge has a wide fertile valley on
this side, the hill coming down rather abrupt from the other. The ground slopes
easily and gradually from the ridge, marked on Wilson's map from Oak Ridge,
Neily's, McCall's, Wixon's, and Tiffintown. Innumerable roads and cross-roads
intersect the country, which cannot be obstructed, but which, running on narrow
ridges, with narrow corn-fields, admit of easy defense. It is only by familiarity
with the country, its ugly ravines, its open, narrow ridges all coming to a
common spur, that a comparatively small force can hold in check a large one.
If the enemy crosses
at one point, he must take some days to get over his men and matériel,
and then would have to feel his way, as he knows full well that many of them
have been made impassable to his wagons and artillery. This will give us time
to fall on him or await his attack. Should he cross at several points, our
tactics would be to hold small forces in obstruction at the several points
named in my order, and a heavy force fall on one or other of his detachments.
If the enemy forces us back, Wixon's will be the grand battle-field, or
somewhere on Clear Creek.
I think, unless
General Grant thinks my services more useful elsewhere, I had better remain, as
naturally all look to me for orders. Please ask the general to read the
inclosed order*
carefully, and, if any part is open to objection, to state it, that I may
modify in time. I sent 800 cavalry, under Colonel Bussey, up the Ridge road
toward Mechanicsville, last night, to sweep back by the lower Benton road. They
went to Post Oak Ridge, and have not yet reported.
Yesterday our
pickets skirmished a little at Messinger's. I was there, and did not see more
than 15 or 20 men, on horseback, as curious to watch us as we them. One man,
near Hill's, was shot through the head by a scamp from the bushes, who could
not be found. As usual, my cavalry are not bold, but the infantry go in without
any hesitation.
Not a sound,
syllable, or sign to indicate a purpose of crossing Big Black River toward us,
but I still enjoin on all that our enemy is too wary to give us notice a minute
too soon. Every possible motive exists for them to come to the relief of
Vicksburg, and we should act on that supposition rather than the mere signs of
movements which are known only to Johnston, and will not be revealed, even to
his own troops, till the last moment.
In order that you
may understand any future communication, mark your map as follows: One and a
half miles east of Young's, where the road comes in from Markham, mark Hill's;
1½ miles southeast of Hill's, Jones' plantation; 2 miles below Birdsong Ferry,
Jones' Ford; 1½ miles southeast of Cameron, Messinger's plantation and Ford; 1
mile east of Fox, mark Parson Fox; 3 miles east of Tiffin, on the Bridgeport
road, Brook. All these points may become of note. I still regard the country at
Tiffin, Brant, Cowan, W. Wixon, and Hardaway as the key-points of this region.
I still have my
headquarters by the roadside, in front of Tribbs', where the road forks to
Young's and Markham's.
When this letter is
read, please send it to my adjutant, to be copied in my letter-book, and
returned to you for file.
* See General
Orders, No. 49, June 29, Part III, p. 449
HDQRS. THIRTEENTH A.
C., Near Vicksburg, July 1, 1863.
Lieut. Col. JOHN A.
RAWLINS, A. A. G., Dept. of the Tennessee:
COLONEL: I have the
honor to send to headquarters two prisoners, with a black boy, captured near
the mouth of Big Black by Maj. James Grant Wilson, Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry,
while attempting to cross the river in a canoe. Major Wilson found a few
letters in the possession of the prisoners, which are inclosed for the
information of the major-general commanding.* If the statements in the letters
of the amount of rations (and the black boy says it has been but one-quarter
pound of bacon and meal each for ten days past) can be relied on, the
information is valuable. It is strongly corroborated by the statements of
deserters for some days past.
SIR: In compliance with orders dated Headquarters Department of Tennessee, June 25, 1863, addressed to "commanding officer of expedition against Greenville," I have the honor to report the following:
I started from Snyder's Bluff, in the afternoon of June 25, 1863, with the following troops, to wit: Twenty-fifth Wisconsin Infantry, 600 strong, four pieces Fourth Ohio Battery, and three companies Fifth Illinois Cavalry, 200 strong, under Major Farnan, and proceeded to Young's Point. Here I was joined by three gunboats and the John Raines, of the marine fleet, having on board 50 infantry and 100 cavalry. The boats were detained till noon the 26th to coal, when I proceeded up the river. Arriving at the foot of Island No. 82, the cavalry disembarked and proceeded by land to Greenville. Here I disembarked, and proceeded with the cavalry to the foot of Island No. 84, distant 21 miles by land. Searching the country to find signs of the enemy, I arrived at Carter's plantation June 27, evening. The transports, with the infantry and artillery, came around by water. Not being able to find or hear of any enemy on this side the river, I am satisfied, from information received from reliable sources, that there has been no enemy near Greenville, on the Mississippi shore, for nearly four weeks; previously to that time there was a small force encamped on Deer Creek, distant 10 miles from Greenville. We found at the foot of Island No. 83 embrasures cut in the levee for three guns, and across the point—3 miles distant—for two guns; that a road had been cut across the point, connecting the two places; that they were in the habit of running the guns across the point while the boats were going round, and firing on the same boat at the two points.
I embarked with the cavalry June 28, and proceeded across the river to Spanish Moss Bend, on the Arkansas shore. Arriving there, all the troops were ordered to disembark, and did so, with the exception of those on board steamer John Raines. Major Hubbard, commanding the troops on the boat, did not obey the order. I proceeded at 1 p.m., 28th, for Gaines' Landing, with the infantry, artillery, and 200 cavalry. I had heard firing the night before at Gaines' Landing, and supposed there was a force on the bend between there and where we had landed. The distance between the point where we had landed and Gaines' Landing is 10 miles. My object was to capture the force between us and Gaines' Landing, on the bend. We had proceeded but 3 miles when we encountered their pickets. We followed them, skirmishing, to Gaines' Landing, where they changed their course, proceeding back from the river. It then being dark, and learning from various sources that their force was largely superior to mine, having no guide and being unable to obtain one, and there being several roads, cut through the woods from the river, in our rear, my force not being large enough to guard the roads and attack the enemy in front, I thought it prudent to retire to our transports.
From what I deem reliable information, the enemy had at Cypress Bend and Gaines' Landing, and points in the vicinity, from 4,000 to 5,000 troops, with eight pieces of artillery, to wit, two pieces 9-pounder rifled Parrott guns, two 16-pounder rifled brass, two 12-pounder brass howitzers, one 6-pounder rifled brass, and one 6-pounder smooth-bore. They have no caissons with their cannon. They have two full regiments of infantry, and the balance of the force cavalry. Their main camp is back of Lake Chicot. Said lake, as nearly as I could ascertain, is 10 miles back and up the river from Gaines' Landing, and so situated that the forces at Cypress Bend or other point on the river can readily be re-enforced from this point. The distance from Gaines' Landing to Cypress Bend, by land, is variously estimated at from 15 to 30 miles; by water, it is 50 miles. I also learned from good authority that all the forces in Arkansas, under Generals Price, Marmaduke, and other commanders, are ordered to the vicinity of Milliken's Bend, and that on June 27 seven regiments passed through Monticello, Ark., about 40 miles from Gaines' Landing. The forces on the river in vicinity of Cypress Bend are under command of General Gorman [?] or Graham [?], and Colonels Clark and [George W.] Carter, of Cape Girardeau notoriety.
I caused to be destroyed on Spanish Moss Bend from 12,000 to 20,000 bushels of corn, one mill and cotton-gin, used by the rebels for grinding corn.
On the morning of the 30th, I proceeded down the river. Hearing in the afternoon that they were fighting at Lake Providence, and needed help, I reported myself to the general commanding, who wished me to lie over night, fearing another attack in the morning. In the morning the cavalry marched through to Goodrich's Landing, seeing no enemy, but noticing the effects of what had been done the day before, the enemy having gone.
Major Farnan, commanding the cavalry, reports that the scenes witnessed by him in marching from Lake Providence to Goodrich's Landing were of a character never before witnessed in a civilized country, and the rebel atrocities committed the day before were such as the pen fails to record in proper language. They spared neither age, sex, nor condition. In some instances the negroes were shut up in their quarters, and literally roasted alive. The charred remains found in numerous instances testified to a degree of fiendish atrocity such as has no parallel either in civilized or savage warfare. Young children, only five or six years of age, were found skulking in the canebreak pierced with wounds, while helpless women were found shot down in the most inhuman manner. The whole country was destroyed, and every sign of civilization was given to the flames.
The cavalry embarked at Goodrich's Landing, and the expedition, except the marine boat, came to Chickasaw Landing. The battery was debarked there and was ordered to join its command. The two boats, with cavalry and infantry, came to Snyder's Bluff, and to camp. The boats were ordered to report to master of transportation, at the landing.
Before closing this report, it is proper that I should say that the portion of the Marine Brigade which accompanied me proved to be entirely worthless. At no time were my orders obeyed willingly, and the officer in command was disposed to find fault and cavil when any real service was required of them. They failed me altogether when most wanted, and, instead of being any assistance to me, they were, to use no harsher language, a positive injury to the expedition.
* * * * * * * * * *
IV. Army corps commanders and commanders of detached forces before Vicksburg will picket all roads, respectively, in rear of their respective positions, by which their camps or the city of Vicksburg can be approached, and prohibit all persons coming into or going out of our lines without special authority from the corps of commanders of detached forces whose pickets they desire to pass or the authority of the general commanding, The pickets will be placed sufficiently far out as to prevent sunrise from any raid the enemy may attempt to make, and each commander will notify the others of the position of his pickets.
V. All that portion of the State of Louisiana now in the occupancy of the Army of the Tennessee will constitute the District of Northeastern Louisiana, and be commanded by Brig. Gen. J. C. Sullivan. During the absence of Brig. Gen. J. P. Hawkins, all troops of African descent in the District of Northeastern Louisiana will be under the immediate command of Col. Isaac F. Shepard.
* * * * * * * * * *
By order of Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant:I. So much of General Orders, No. 5, of date Memphis, January 16, 1863, from these headquarters, as requires provost-marshals to collect, for the secret service and hospital fund, fees for permits to buy cotton at military posts, and for permits to trade at military posts where trade is not regulated by the civil authorities, and all existing orders within this department “conflicting or inconsistent with the orders in respect to the regulating of intercourse with the insurrectionary States, the collection of abandoned property, &c.,” published for the information and government of the army, and of all concerned, in General Orders, No. 88, of date April 3, 1863, Adjutant-General's Office, or which permit or prohibit, or in any way or manner interfere with any trade or transportation conducted under the regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury, prescribed March 31, 1863; and all permits heretofore granted to persons to trade or ship goods to this department, by the major-general commanding, or by his order, are hereby revoked.
II. The shipment of goods for sale south of Helena, in this department, by any persons other than sutlers regularly and duly appointed in pursuance of existing law, is positively prohibited. Upon the approval of army corps commanders, or the commanders of posts, or of forces detached from their respective army corps, and on compliance with the Treasury regulations and orders, regularly appointed sutlers may be permitted to ship to their regiments, for sale within their camp lines, such sutler goods as are specifically designated and permitted to be sold by them, under the act of March 19, 1862, published in General Orders, No. 27, Adjutant-General's Office, series 1862, and the articles added thereto, as published in General Orders, No. 35, of date February 7, 1863, Adjutant-General's Office, and they will be allowed to sell only the articles designated in said law and orders, and none others, and at such prices, and not exceeding such, as may be affixed to said articles by a board of officers, in pursuance of the provisions of said act. The board of officers upon whom the duty of establishing and fixing the prices, exceeding which the articles permitted to be sold by sutlers shall not be sold, is imposed by said act, will immediately proceed to establish and affix said prices in all cases where it has not already been done.
III. All traders not regularly authorized sutlers, with their stocks in trade, will be required to remove at once to Helena, or north of that place.
IV. No spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors will be permitted to pass south of Cairo, Ill., except such as belong to the commissary and medical departments.
V. Any violation of, or non-compliance with, this order, directly or indirectly, will work a forfeiture of all the goods the person or persons guilty of such violation or non compliance may have in his or their possession, and subject such offenders to imprisonment in the military prison at Memphis, Tenn., at the discretion of the general commanding the department.
VI. The enforcement of General Orders, No. 88, current series, Adjutant-General's Office, of the Treasury regulations herein referred to, and of this order, is especially enjoined upon all military commanders and the respective provost-marshals in this department.
VII. All property seized for violations of this order will be disposed of and accounted for in accordance with existing orders.
VIII. No applications for the shipment of goods, or for permits to trade, within this department, will be entertained at department headquarters.
By order of Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant:Hereafter there shall be collected by provost-marshals for secret-service and hospital fund the following fees:
For each permit to buy cotton at any military post, whether as principal or agent, $100.
For each permit to trade at any military post where trade is not regulated by the civil authorities, $100.
The amount thus collected shall be reported and paid over by each local provost-marshal to the provost-marshal of his district at the time of making his weekly report, and by district provost-marshals reported and paid over to the provost-marshal-general at the time of making their semi-monthly report.
The provost-marshal-general will pay over said fund to the chief quartermaster of the department, who will hold the same subject to the order of the general commanding the department.
Each local provost-marshal will keep a duplicate of all permits granted under this order, and will state in his report the name and residence of the party obtaining the permit and the date thereof.
All permits heretofore granted will be considered revoked and the parties required to comply with the terms of this order.
This order is not to be construed to remove any restrictions imposed by previous orders.
By order of Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant:SIR: Last night, in company with Colonel Wilson, I rode up to Snyder's Bluff, and this morning examined the line of pits and batteries in course of construction. They appear to me well adapted to the end in view, and will enable the two divisions of Kimball and Smith to hold any three coming from the north and northeast. I examined, in company with Generals Washburn, Kimball, and Smith, also Colonel Wilson, the valley of the Skillet-Goliath, and have advised that General Parke dispose his force along that valley, its center near the church at Milldale, left near Snyder's, and right up toward Templeton, where I have a strong picket. General Parke had not arrived at the hour of my starting back (4 p.m.), but I saw steamboats coming, which I think contained his troops. The accounts of the enemy brought in from the front were very conflicting, and my inference was that Loring is feeling his way cautiously down with cavalry, and a moderate force of infantry, as far as Post Oak Ridge. It seems the cavalry pickets drew in from that point last night, but General Washburn assured me he would replace them to-day. The Fourth Iowa Cavalry have moved, by my orders, to Wixon's, with orders to watch the approaches from Bush's and Birdsong Ferries. With arrangements now completed, the enemy cannot come down the Valley road or the Ridge road via Snyder's. If he comes, he must come across the head of Clear Creek, debouching near Marshall's. That ground cannot well be obstructed, but it is advantageous to us, and could be rendered more so by constructing two or three detached forts: one near Marshall's, another at the point where the Bridgeport road leaves the Benton road, and another intermediate. If you deem it prudent, I will cause the ground to be more closely examined, and works laid off and begun. As you know, my corps has done much labor, but I will do anything and everything in human power to achieve final success.
[June 19, 1863.]
There is a partially
organized regiment of Colored troops in your corps. Please order them together
with their women and children to proceed at once to Chickasaw Bayou Landing,
where they will go into Camp and furnish such details for fatigue duty as may
be required in the Commissary, Ordnance and Quartermaster's Department at that
place; and at the same time complete their organization.
SOURCE: John Y.
Simon, Editor, The Papers of Ulysses S.
Grant, Volume 8, p. 398
* * * * * * * * * *
IV. Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand is hereby relieved from the command of the Thirteenth Army Corps. He will proceed to any point he may select in the State of Illinois, and report by letter to Headquarters of the Army for orders.* Maj. Gen. E. O. C. Ord is hereby appointed to the command of the Thirteenth Army Corps, subject to the approval of the President, and will immediately assume charge of the same.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 24, Part 1 (Serial No. 36), p. 164-5
SIR: On my return last evening from an inspection of the new works at Snyder's Bluff, General Blair, who commands the Second Division of my corps, called my attention to the inclosed publication in the Memphis Evening Bulletin of June 13, instant, entitled “Congratulatory Order of General McClernand,” with a request that I should notice it, lest the statements of fact and inference contained therein might receive credence from an excited public. It certainly gives me no pleasure or satisfaction to notice such a catalogue of nonsense—such an effusion of vain-glory and hypocrisy; nor can I believe General McClernand ever published such an order officially to his corps. I know too well that the brave and intelligent soldiers and officers who compose that corps will not be humbugged by such stuff.
If the order be a genuine production and not a forgery, it is manifestly addressed not to an army, but to a constituency in Illinois, far distant from the scene of the events attempted to be described, who might innocently be induced to think General McClernand the sagacious leader and bold hero he so complacently paints himself; but it is barely possible the order is a genuine one, and was actually read to the regiments of the Thirteenth Army Corps, in which case a copy must have been sent to your office for the information of the commanding general.
I beg to call his attention to the requirements of General Orders, No. 151, of 1862, which actually forbids the publication of all official letters and reports, and requires the name of the writer to be laid before the President of the United States for dismissal. The document under question is not technically a letter or report, and though styled an order, is not an order. It orders nothing, but is in the nature of an address to soldiers, manifestly designed for publication for ulterior political purposes. It perverts the truth to the ends of flattery and self-glorification, and contains many untruths, among which is one of monstrous falsehood. It substantially accuses General McPherson and myself with disobeying the orders of General Grant in not assaulting on May 19 and 22, and allowing on the latter day the enemy to mass his forces against the Thirteenth Army Corps alone. General McPherson is fully able to answer for himself, and for the Fifteenth Army Corps I answer that on May 19 and 22 it attacked furiously, at three distinct points, the enemy's works, at the very hour and minute fixed in General Grant's written orders; that on both days we planted our colors on the exterior slope and kept them there till nightfall; that from the first hour of investment of Vicksburg until now my corps has at all times been far in advance of General McClernand's; that the general-in-chief, by personal inspection, knows this truth; that tens of thousands of living witnesses beheld and participated in the attack; that General Grant visited me during both assaults and saw for himself, and is far better qualified to judge whether his orders were obeyed than General McClernand, who was nearly 3 miles off; that General McClernand never saw my lines; that he then knew, and still knows, nothing about them, and that from his position he had no means of knowing what occurred on this front. Not only were the assaults made at the time and place and in the manner prescribed in General Grant's written orders, but about 3 p.m., five hours after the assault on the 22d began, when my storming party lay against the exterior slope of the bastion on my front, and Blair's whole division was deployed close up to the parapet, ready to spring to the assault, and all my field artillery were in good position for the work, General Grant showed me a note from General McClernand, that moment handed him by an orderly, to the effect that had carried three of the enemy's forts, and that the flag of the Union waved over the stronghold of Vicksburg, asking that the enemy should be pressed at all points lest he should concentrate on him. Not dreaming that a major-general would at such a critical moment make a mere buncombe communication, I instantly ordered Giles A. Smith's and Mower's brigades to renew the assault under cover of Blair's division and the artillery, deployed as before described, and sent an aide to General Steele, about a mile to my right, to convey the same mischievous message, whereby we lost, needlessly, many of our best officers and men.
I would never have revealed so unwelcome a truth had General MCClernand, in his process of self-flattery, confined himself to facts in the reach of his own observation, and not gone out of the way to charge others for results which he seems not to comprehend. In cases of repulse and failure, congratulatory addresses by subordinate commanders are not common, and are only resorted to by weak and vain men to shift the burden of responsibility from their own to the shoulders of others. I never make a practice of speaking or writing of others, but during our assault of the 19th several of my brigade commanders were under the impression that McClernand's corps did not even attempt an assault.
In the congratulatory order I remark great silence on the subject. Merely to satisfy inquiring parties, I should like to know if McClernand's corps did or did not assault at 2 p.m. of May 19, as ordered. I do not believe it did, and I think General McClernand responsible.
With these remarks I leave the matter where it properly belongs, in the hands of the commanding general, who knows his plans and orders, sees with an eye single to success and his country's honor, and not from the narrow and contracted circle of a subordinate commander, who exaggerates the importance of the events that fall under his immediate notice, and is filled with an itching desire for "fame not earned."
COLONEL: I have
received to-day one letter from Captain Lyford, chief of ordnance, in relation
to sending down 32 pounder guns and carriages for 10-inch columbiads. Colonel
[Ignatz G.] Kappner, First Tennessee Heavy A.D. Artillery, proceeded at once to
Columbus and Island No. 10 to fill this order.
In the other, from
yourself, of the 8th, you direct the infantry find artillery of this command
held ready for still further reduction at short notice.
The command is ready
to be moved as rapidly as can be done and to any extent required by orders from
headquarters. It now covers the main line of road from Memphis to Corinth, and
covers this very lightly. Had I any disposable infantry force, I should move
down the Panola road.
Scout in at La
Grange; left Jackson the 7th. Says they claim 50,000 men with Johnston; he
thinks not more than 30,000. Breckinridge is there with 10,000. Forces
constantly arriving from Charleston, Savannah, and Tennessee. The railroad was
fully repaired on Saturday. Forage and supplies being forced down from all
parts of Mississippi.
[W. H.] Jackson and
[J. W.] Whitfield, with cavalry, reached Jackson on Friday. Hatch has just
returned from an expedition along the Tallahatchee. Met nothing but pickets and
light squads. I shall send the whole of my cavalry down as far as they can go,
to destroy crops and break up roads and means of transportation.
A portion of the
Second Division, of Ninth Army Corps, arrived this afternoon; the balance will
be here in a few hours from Cairo. The division is in command of Major-General
Parke. Everything is being pressed forward as fast as possible, but there is
terrible scarcity of boats, and it seems as if boats that go down to your parts
never return. It is impossible to send anything down until some of the boats
below are returned. Every boat from Saint Louis is in service. They should not
be kept an hour after they are discharged of their cargoes.
I am fully satisfied
that Johnston cannot bring more than 35,000 men, of all arms, within the next
ten days.
Bragg is removing
his stores to Atlanta, but Rosecrans will not believe any reports from this
quarter, and I have ceased communicating with him, except through Washington.
He could now easily clear Middle Tennessee and open communication with Dodge at
Hamburg.
I have the honor to
be, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. A. HURLBUT.
COLONEL: I received
this morning orders through Captain Lyford, ordnance officer, to send ten
32-pounder guns and carriages for two 10-inch columbiads, with ammunition. I
have sent Colonel Kappner, First Tennessee Artillery, to Columbus, to procure
the same and forward as speedily as possible. They shall be sent as soon as
they can be shipped. Major-General Parke telegraphs me from Cairo, inquiring
when first boat of Ninth Army Corps arrives. I expect them hourly. Smith has left
with his division.
I reiterate my
request that the general commanding will see to it, if possible, that
communication north by railroad be destroyed.
Hatch's cavalry is
now south of the Tallahatchee, looking after any proposed advance. Unless it is
absolutely necessary, I do not desire to move the Fourth Illinois Cavalry, and
on this await orders. The reasons are that Rosecrans is not active near the
Tennessee; that the abandonment of Jackson lays the whole country open, and
that active cavalry movements from Columbus are necessary to cover this open
line.
Colonel Hillyer
reported to me, with orders from General Grant, to assist in expediting
movements of troops. I am not aware of any assistance rendered by him, although
his society was very agreeable when time was allowed to converse with him. I am
satisfied that his forte is not in quartermaster's duty.
I have the honor to
be, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. A. HURLBUT.
P. S.—I have heard
incidentally that Colonel Duff and Colonel Lagow, of your staff, have been
here. They have not reported to me.
SOURCE: The
War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 24, Part 3 (Serial No. 38), p. 397-8
[June 8, 1863]
The one hundred
& Eighth 108 Ill Infy & twenty third 23 Iowa are still at youngs point
& have not reported to their Commands.
SOURCE: John Y.
Simon, Editor, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 8, p. 322
[June 8, 1863]
You will direct Col
Whitney to send over and ascertain, if there would be any danger in the Negroes
marching across to Youngs Point, and if there would be none, send them there
without delay, and if they cannot be sent by that route, let them go round by Chickasaw
Bayou, travelling at night They cannot be kept at Warrenton. The 108th Ills,
and 23d Iowa were to join their Divisions as soon as they could be releived by
the 63d Illinois, which went to Youngs-Point yesterday. The disturbed state of
that place may delay them there, but they will obey the order as soon as they
can be spared from there. No Official report has been received from Gen'l [Dennis],
one is expected momentarily. Admiral Porter reports the enemy were repulsed
yesterday with a loss of 80 left dead on the field[.]
SOURCE: John Y.
Simon, Editor, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 8, p. 322
Special Orders No.
157.}
Lieut. Z. C. Bryan,
of the 27th Regt. Ohio Infty, Vols, will immediately break up the Contraband
Camp at Haine's Bluff, and move the old men, women and children to the most
valuable of the abandoned plantations within our lines, and put them to work
cultivating the Crops growing on said plantations. The able bodied negro men,
including both those who have enlisted in companies and those who have not
enlisted, will be reported to the Commanding officer of Haines Bluff—for work
on the defences of that place and when their services are no longer required
for that purpose, those not enlisted will be put out to labor on the
plantations, and those enlisted will be subject to such orders as their
Commanding Officers may receive from Dept. Headquarters. The Commanding
Officers of troops near any of the Plantations, that may be so occupied, will,
when necessary, furnish such guards as may be required to protect the occupants
of the same from the insults of stragglers and will afford every facility in
their power to enable Lieut. Bryan to carry out these instructions without
interference or molestation The Quartermasters Department will turn over to
Lieut. Bryan for use in tilling of said plantations such of the Captured mules
and horses it may have as are unfit for service in the army.
SOURCE: John Y. Simon, Editor, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 8, p. 318-9
[June 19, 1863]
There is a partially
organized regiment of Colored troops in your corps. Please order them together
with their women and children to proceed at once to Chickasaw Bayou Landing,
where they will go into Camp and furnish such details for fatigue duty as may
be required in the Commissary, Ordnance and Quartermaster's Department at that
place; and at the same time complete their organization.
SOURCE: John Y.
Simon, Editor, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 8, p. 398
