Today in History:

982 Series I Volume XLVII-II Serial 99 - Columbia Part II

Page 982 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.

HARDEEVILLE, January 2, 1865.

Major-General McLAWS:

At the rate the enemy are now driving General Anderson they will reach the point where the railroad crosses the Purysburg and Screven's Ferry road by 1 or 2 p. m.

W. Y. C. HUMES,

Brigadier-General.

POCOTALIGO, January 2, 1865.

Brigadier-General HUMES:

I earnestly hope you will seriously impede the progress of the enemy. Resist his advance at every point, and make your dispositions to defend the crossings of New River and Great Swamp at all hazards. Give me as soon as possible some information concerning the numbers of the enemy. Concentrate your forces, and make a determined resistance.

L. McLAWS,

Major-General, Commanding.


HEADQUARTERS IVERSON'S DIVISION,
January 2, 1865--9 a. m.

Lieutenant HUDSON,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, Wheeler's Corps:

LIEUTENANT: Scouts report the enemy having advanced their pickets twelve miles from Savannah. Captain Moncrief charged their pickets day before yesterday, but failed to force them back. It is reported that the enemy do not now allow any one to pass in or out of Savannah. No report from Colonel Hawkins or Harris. A special report from scout states that the enemy are no farther north or west than Midway Church. They have been, I think, returned toward Savannah.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ALFRED IVERSON,

Brigadier-General.


HDQRS. GEORGIA RESERVES AND MIL. DIST. OF GEORGIA,
Macon, Ga., January 2, 1865.

Colonel JOHN B. CUMMING,

Commanding Georgia Reserves, Hardeeville, S. C.:

COLONEL: I am instructed by the commanding major-general to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23rd ultimo, and to say in reply he deeply regrets to hear of the conduct of a portion of your command, manifesting a mutinous spirits, alike unpatriotic and illegal. He can have no sympathy for or with men who are not willing at this trying crisis to serve their country wherever their service is required. The plea that they are required to serve beyond the territory of their State would be unworthy of Yankees, but is disreputable and disgraceful on the part of men who profess to be Southern men, fighting for their liberty. The man who will desert the flag of the Confederacy in the face of the enemy on the pitiful plea that he is serving upon the soild of another and not his own State, is but little, if any, better than the traitor who barters away the liberties of his country for his own


Page 982 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.