Today in History:

1152 Series I Volume XLVII-II Serial 99 - Columbia Part II

Page 1152 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.

lost and broken, but are not charged to the men. At present arms are deficient in number, not uniform in kind or caliber, some are broken, and nearly all of them dirty. Horse equipments are in bad order, and there is a deficiency of currycombs. The animals are mostly lean and puny, chiefly mules and but few well ground. Many are only excuses to escape infantry service. Accounterments are deficient. Ammunition it not evenly distributed, and there is none for some calibers, as Spence's rifles, a Virginia musket 1814, 7c. Descriptive lists of animals are correctly kept. The Roswell Battalion being all on picket duty could not be inspected. It is composed of two companies, and has no field or staff. Company A is compose of men who were operatives in the mills at Roswell, Ga., and organized into a battalion of 140 men, infantry, artillery, and cavalry, under the act for local defense.

When Roswell fell into the hands of the enemy Captain King, commanding battalion, was ordered to report to Brigadier General M. J. Wright, who reorganized the local battalion into a permanent company, ordered the pieces of artillery to be turned into the arsenal at Atlanta, and mounted the men. At the surrender of Atlanta Captain King was ordered to report to General Cobb, and by him to General Iverson, who assigned the company to Hannon's brigade. This company was reorganized by consent of Colonel Browne, chief of conscription, State of Georgia, at the request of General Cobb. The men at present in Company A have o companies in the field, but were all detached by the Conscript Bureau. Such as were detailed from the field deserted. Muster-rolls of the reorganization were forwarded through General Cobb, and at the same time lists of the deserters were furnished to the Bureau of Conscription. Though mustered as mounted, many of the men have never been mounted. Arms are defiecient in number and not uniform in kind in both Company A and Company B. Company B, commanded by Captain Zachry, was mustered into service 1st September, 1864, by Captain King, who received authority from General Cobb to add a company to his command. It is composed of youths between fifteen and eighteenth years of age. It is said to be the desire of Company A to be attached to the Twenty-fourth Alabama Battalion. I have no means of ascertainig why Company A should not be distributed among the regular troops and Company B attached to a regiment of Georgia State Reserves. The attention of the commanding officer of the District of Georgia has been invited to many of the above-mentioned deficiencis, and to the cases of certain officers who should be retired or dropped. General Iverson's troops are actively engaged as scouts and on picket duty from Sister's Ferry, on the Savannah River, to the mouth of the Atlamaha, the Fifth Kentucky Regiment Mounted Infantry, and the Roswell (Georgia) Battalion being so distant and scattered that they could not be reached. Ferguson's brigade being on the right of the Atlamaha, near Hawkinsville, and engaged on a march which would consume two weeks, with a probability of being continued much longer, could not be inspected. It being impossible to obtain blank inspection reports in Georgia or Alabama, this report has been furnished without their aid. In view of the obstacles to inspecting the few troops at present in Georgia I have determined to return to Alabama. Letters will reach me at Mobile, in care of Major General D. H. Maury.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN G. DEVEREUX,

Major and Assistant Adjutant and Inspector General.


Page 1152 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.