Today in History:

697 Series I Volume V- Serial 5 - West Virginia

Page 697 Chapter XIV. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.

to-night. Have ordered him to put so much of his brigade in readiness to march as can be spared. He has five regiments and four guns. Fears to part with more artillery. Can spare infantry. I think enemy reported at Bath again moving on Hancock; not believed by General Williams..

N. P. BANKS,.

Major-General, Commanding Division..

JANUARY 10, 1862.

Honorable SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War:.

Mr. David, the person in charge of the telegraph at General Kelley's headquarters, Cumberland, sends me the following this p. m.:

General Lander has information which leads him to believe that Jackson is advancing on Springfield. If true, he will have to fall back on New Creek. Telegram to General Kelley from Big Cacapon says a country clerk from Bath reports Jackson's force 16,000, made up of militia from Morgan, Frederick, Barkeley, and Hampshire Counties, and regulars from Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia. Thinks militia numbers 3,000. He counted twenty-four pieces of artillery, two of them 32-pounders..

Very respectfully, yours,.

ANSON STAGER..

HEADQUARTERS HOOKER'S DIVISION,.

Camp Baker, Lower Potomac, Maryland, January 11, 1862.

Brigadier General S. WILLIAMS:

Since my interview with the Major-General Commanding on Friday last it has suggested itself to me that to might not be unimportant for him to be informed of the facilities at Port Tobacco for embarking troops. The wharf at the town is 50 feet long, with 9 feet water at high tide. Three miles below, on the bay, troops can step from the shore on to vessels drawing not over 5 or 6 feel water. This town is 32 miles distant from Washington, with better roads than those leading to my camp..

The piles for my wharf are nearly all driven and may of them capped. It will bee 300 feet long, of the form of an L, and wide enough for a four-horse wagon to turn on it without difficulty at the outer extremity. There I will have 6 feet water. (This is at Rum Point.)

To-morrow I propose to send the pile-driver to Liverpool Point, where I shall require it a couple of days. A wharf there of 60 feet in length will give me 6 feet water. These two wharves are indispensable..

Since my return from Washington I have learned that a negro on the steamer Freeborn visited the neighborhood of Aquia and brought away his wife and children. He reports the number of troops in that vicinity to be that already communicated. He is ready and willing to visit that district any night. Brooke's Station is on the north side of the Potomac River, where the railroad bridge crosses that river, and 6 miles from Aquia bridge, about 300 feet in length. From Brooke's Station to Fredericksburg is 7 miles. Three bridges cross Rapahannock at this town. The railroad bridge stands on stone piers, and is about 600 feet in length. The others are wooden bridges, one about one-third of a mile, the other about one miles rom the railroad bridge. I can learn of.


Page 697 Chapter XIV. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.