HDQRS. VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, Shelbyville, January 25, 1863.
Col. BRENT, Assistant Adjutant-Gen.:
To-day I have worked through six brigades; will continue the work to-morrow. Col. Biffle's regiment has moved north in the field work, and will to-morrow rake this county from near the enemy's lines south. I have made provisions with Gen. Wharton to cover the movement and protect the command. Gen. Forrest is present and informs me that Dibrell's regiment is on the way through Marshall County to Fayetteville. I have sent a courier for him and will order him directly to the starting-ground to sweep the four corners of the counties referred to in my dispatch yesterday. I will then sweep* over Williams and Maury. I applied to Gen. Cheatham for an officer to carry forward my instructions to Tullahoma and place the details from that corps under working orders, but he declines allowing even for that temporary service any officer that I think equal to the work. I cannot put that duty on one in whom I have not full confidence. I see no alternative but to come forward myself, but it would have greatly advanced my work if he would have allowed me the use of a satisfactory officer. If I had the corps of Lieut.-Gen. Hardee under working orders I could see my work going on satisfactory. The general may rely on my doing all that it is possible to accomplish.
Respectfully,
GID. J. PILLOW, Brig.-Gen., C. S. Army, and Chief of Bureau.
OR, Ser. IV, Vol. 2, p. 371.
HDQRS. VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, Shelbyville, January 26, 1863.
Col. CAMPBELL, Principal Assistant for Middle Tennessee:
Col. Avery has instructions to sweep the county of Lincoln, arresting stragglers, absentees, deserters, and all men liable to the operations of the conscript law and bring them in to you. Having performed that duty, you will hold him in hand and use his command as actively as possible in gathering up stragglers and conscripts in the counties of Franklin, Lincoln, Giles, Lawrence, and in that portion of North Alabama laying along the Tennessee line within the counties above indicated. I will put a working force in the other counties myself....
* * * *
Respectfully,
GID. J. PILLOW, Brig.-Gen., C. S. Army, Chief of Bureau.
OR, Ser. IV, Vol. 2, p. 374.
*Ed. note - Pillow's use of the verb "sweep" here indicates that the term "conscript sweep" is appropriate.
25, Foraging expedition from Irish Bottom to Evans' Island
JANUARY 25, 1865.--Expedition from Irish Bottom to Evans' Island. Tenn.
Report of Col. John A. Shannon, First U. S. Colored Heavy Artillery.
HDQRS. FORAGING EXPEDITION, Irish Bottom, Tenn., January 28, 1865.
SIR: I have the honor to report that in accordance with instructions received from Maj. Smith, acting inspector-general, Second Brigade, Fourth Division, Twenty-third Army Corps, I proceeded to Beaver Dam Bottom on the 25th instant, and did not find the cattle there. I then moved on down the river and did not find them until I got to Evans' Island, where the cattle were on the island, and the water and ice running in the river so bad that the men in charge could not get them off. I found Lieut. Wiley M. Christian in command of the First Tennessee; he had three commissioned officers and eighty-six men. Upon ascertaining the fact that the cattle could not be moved immediately I sent to the Beaver Dam for Capt. Murphy and his fifty men to come and take charge of the guard and cattle. Capt. Murphy had two commissioned officers with him. I then left orders for Capt. Murphy to bring the cattle up to the Beaver Dam as soon as practicable, and as he then had six commissioned officers and 136 men, I thought that that was a sufficient guard for 192 cattle (the number I found there), and I took the responsibility upon myself to order the cavalry to come on and report to Col. Hawley, as ordered.
Lieut. Christian accounts for the absence of his men in this way, i. e., that when he started from Knoxville he had to leave the sick there, bringing only sixty-eight men with him, but that they are getting better and are rejoining their command; he now has eighty-six men, and he knows of six that had started from Knoxville and would be there by this time. I apprehend, that if the present cold weather continues and the ice continues to run in the river as it now does, that the cattle cannot get off the island, and having consumed the forage there it will be exceedingly difficult for them to live.
I am, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JOHN A. SHANNON, Col., Cmdg. Foraging Expedition.
OR, Ser. I, Vol. 49, pt. I, p. 10.
No comments:
Post a Comment