PITTSBURGH, PA.,
April 28, 1862.
Hon. E. M. STANTON,
Secretary of War:
Your several dispatches have been received and acted upon.
No efforts are spared to get the gunboats under way. The Mingo will leave
to-morrow noon; the Lioness to-morrow evening; both with coal barges. The
Samson, I think, will start Wednesday. The tender Dick Fulton can overtake the
tows before they reach Louisville. The other tender will wait for the
sheltering barge, but I think will come up in time. Will the Department supply
the clerk who is to act as paymaster or shall the committee appoint one? Can
arrangements be made to enable the wives of the men to draw a part of their pay
if they should be detained below? This I find to be important. I will instruct
my brother to meet me at Cairo. He will assuredly come rapidly.
CHAS. ELLET, JR.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
10, Part 2 (Serial No. 11), p. 138