Today in History:

616 Series I Volume V- Serial 5 - West Virginia

Page 616 OPERATIONS IN MD., N.VA., AND W.VA. Chapter XIV.


HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA,
Baltimore, Md., October 9, 1861.

Brigadier General HENRY H. LOCKWOOD,

Commanding at Cambridge, Md.:

GENERAL: All the disunion companies in Queen Anne County should be disarmed. I much prefer that you should do the work with your Delaware troops. Arms and prisoners should be sent here. I am trying to get a steamer to put at your disposal. If I do not succeed, I must send you our tug at Annapolis. We can spare her two or three days in a week.

If you can get any legitimate authority, executive or military, in Delaware to direct the disbandment or disarming of companies in that State it should be done. In that case I think the arms had been be deposited ate Fort Delaware. I have been urging the Government for two months to send a force into Accomac and Northampton Counties, Va., and break up the rebel camps there. General McClellan encouraged me to believe that it would be done, and I trust it will not be delayed much longer.

I am, general, very respectfully, yours,

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General, Commanding.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN VA.,


No. 1. Camp at Mountain Cove, Va., October 11, 1861.

I. In accordance with General Orders, No. 80, from the War Department [September 19], this department will hereafter be called the Department of Western Virginia, and will comprise so much of the State of Virginia as lies west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

* * * * * * *

By command of Brigadier-General Rosecrans:

GEO. L. HARTSUFF,

Assistant Adjutant-General.


HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
Washington, October 12, 1861.

Honorable SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: Lieutenant Colonel B. S. Alexander, of the Corps of Engineers, has been detailed to take charge of the construction of bridge and engineer trains for the use of the Army of the Potomac in its forward movement. I respectfully request authority to have constructed under his superintendence from ten to fifteen of the Birago combined trestle and pontoon equipages. The work should be commenced at once, but I cannot at present determine the exact length of each train or the precise number required. I would be glad to have full authority to arrange these matters as more mature consideration may determine. I learn that the Engineer Department has no funds at its disposal for this purpose, and I would therefore suggest that the expense be defrayed by the Quartermaster's Department until a special appropriation can be obtained from Congress. General Barnard is favorably impressed with Murphy's suspension bridge for field purposes. I would ask authority to expend $3,000 in experimenting upon this bridge, should further examination render it probable that it would be successful.


Page 616 OPERATIONS IN MD., N.VA., AND W.VA. Chapter XIV.