Today in History:

419 Series I Volume IX- Serial 9 - Roanoke

Page 419 Chapter XX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-CONFEDERATE.

salt, 1 barrel fish, 20 barrels and 2,158 pounds hard bread, 265 barrels flour, 109,554 pounds meal, 54 1/2 bushels pease and beans, 3,082 pounds sugar, 460 gallons vinegar, 1,348 pounds soap, 58 gallons whisky, 5 bushels yapon [a kind of wild tea].

Aggregate number of entire command........................ 1,882

Four cooks allowed to each company......................... 92

To be subsisted............................................ 1,914

Effective force, officers included, absent and sick being deducted, 1,435.

A call has been made for 250 free negroes for service in the engineer department. These will have to be subsisted, as will also the gang of 8 men on the pile-driver.

Horses, mules, and oxen in charge of quartermaster's department.-Nine officers' horses, 6 yoke of oxen hired by quartermasters of Eighth and Thirty-first Regiments, 2 pair mules property of the Government. The mules and oxen are used for general purposes of land transportation.

Amount of forage on hand.-Seven hundred and twenty-five pounds fodder, 2 1/2 bushels corn, 1 1/4 barrels oats.

Orders have been given for the construction of a magazine. No regular ordnance officer has been appointed.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. M. SHAW,

Colonel, Commanding.

RICHMOND, January 12, 1862.

Gov. HENRY T. CLARK, Raleigh:

Please order at once two of your regiments now at Raleigh to rendezvous at Goldsborough. Give them what arms you can, and we will complete their armament.

It seems probable that the expedition is against your coast, but I do not yet rely on the information hitherto received. Act as promptly as possible.

J. P. BENJAMIN,

Secretary of War.

ROANOKE ISLAND, N. C., January 15, 1862.

SIR: In compliance with your orders, Lieutenant Loyal and myself have reported at this place for duty connected with the heavy batteries, and up to this time have inspected and frequently exercised them, with the exception of Fort Forrest, on the other side of the sound. This we have not visited, in consequence of the weather, which has not been favorable for the past few days. We find the batteries well constructed and arranged, except that at Pork Point which requires a flank to the southward, to prevent its being enfiladed. This has been recommended to Colonel Shaw, and orders have probably been given to have the work done. The equipment of the guns is incomplete, only one gun on the island being sighted, and the rifled guns (three in number) are mounted on navy barbette carriages, which are very unwieldy. The instruction is indifferent, but the officers and men evince such a good disposition to learn, that we hope, with the facilities offered us, to be able in a short time to report very favorably of their


Page 419 Chapter XX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-CONFEDERATE.