Today in History:

1148 Series I Volume XLVII-II Serial 99 - Columbia Part II

Page 1148 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.

Brigadier General Alfred Iverson's division and Brigadier-General Ferguson's brigade. Iverson's proper brigade is not included in his division command, but is commanded by Colonel Crews and incorporated in Brigadier-General Allen's division, now in South Carolina. Captain Cecil's case has been investigated and the papers returned to you through Colonel E. J. Harvie, assistant adjutant and inspector general, Army of Tennessee. The troops which were inspected are the Third, Fourth, Sixth, Ninth Kentucky Regiments, mounted infantry of Brigadier General Jos. H. Lewis' brigade, and the Fifty-third Alabama Regiment, Twenty-foruth Alabama Battalion, eleventh Georgia Regiment, and the Roswell (Georgia) Battalion, of Colonel M. W. Hannon's brigade, all of Iverson's division. The rosters of these regiments are forwarded herewith, as also a list of the officers of the general staff belonging to them. Returns of the two brigades accompany this letter. The absent commissioned officers are accounted for on the rosters. The rosters of the Kentucky brigade are imperfecct because the regimental recordds wereinaccessible. A circular from General Wheeler, copy inclosed, directing that all men absent without leave more than seven days be dropped from the rolls, has caused some misunderstanding. Should not such men be accounted for on the returns as deserted, and only officers as "dropped" who may have been absent without leave or are incompetent, deserters being accounted fro on the muster-rolls also? It is remarked that the muster-rolls in Hannon's brigade are not correctly made out, and that the inspecting officer failed to affix his signature or fill out the remarks. The blank forms of returns in this division are not all uniform with those of other troops. It is respectfully suggested that an order issue from your office prescribing the form of all service blanks, and exacting compliance with notes printed upon them all; the numbering of he columns is highly useful, and the notes might indicate in detail the information required in each column. The headings, "extra duty," and "absent detached service," are frequently misused. Regimental commanders and assistant adjutants-general seem not to know the manner of returning officers and men on detached duty at general headquarters. General Iverson fails to report all officers and men permanently on detached duty at his headquarters. The most notable defect iin this division is the want of proper organization. There are but few staff officers at the general headquarters, and none but adjutants and some surgeons with regiments.

General Iverson is detached from his own brigade, now Crews', to command these two brigades in another division, and has no general staff officers except Captain Byrd, assistant commissary of subsistence, recently assigned by order of Lieutenant-General Hardee. Colonel Hannon's brigade was organized lasst April, but his application for staff officers was not approved, on the ground that the brigade was serving with him is Captain Dickinson, assistant quartersmaster, Fifty-third Alabama. Besides rendering more difficult the enforcement of discipline, the want of staff officers is one cause of the discontent of the people of Georgia, who have been much annoyed with irregular receipts given by line officers ignorant of their duty. In this connection it is proper to remark that the agent allowed by act of Congress (General Order 54, 1864), to audit claims in each Congressional district has not appeared in Burke and Screven Counties, Ga., traversed by our cavalry in November and December, 1864. This division has never been officially organized in orders, nor has in ever been inspected, either as division or by brigades; no inspection reports of any kind have


Page 1148 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.