Today in History:

350 Series I Volume XLVII-III Serial 100 - Columbia Part III

Page 350 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.


HDQRS. DEPT. OF NORTH CAROLINA, ARMY OF THE OHIO,
Raleigh, N. C., April 29, 1865.

General J. E. JOHNSTON,

Commanding Confederate Forces, Greensborough, N. C.:

GENERAL: I have received your communication of yesterday*, inclosing supplemental terms to the convention of April 26. I find it necessary to modify them to some extent, but I hope they will still be satisfactory to you. General Sherman has vested in his several department commanders the power to carry into effect the convention of April 26 within the limits of their departments, respectively, and to dispose of the captured animals and wagons by "loans" to citizens. It is not in my power to make the terms proposed as to the time when the officers and men shall be released from their obligation. Mobile and New Orleans and the country west of the Mississippi are in General Canby's military division, hence the most I can do is to ask him to give the transportation you desire for men from Arkansas and Texas. I inclose a copy of the supplemental terms as modified. # I will send up the printed forms and officers to execute them to-morrow. I propose that the obligation be written upon the face of each roll and certified by the commanding officer and one of my staff officers, and that each officer and man be furnished with a certificate bearing the same signature.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. M. SCHOFIELD,

Major-General, Commanding.


HDQRS. DEPT. OF NORTH CAROLINA, ARMY OF THE OHIO,
Raleigh, N. C., April 29, 1865.

D. HEATON,

Agent Treasury Department, New Berne, N. C.:

DEAR SIR: I have just received your letter of the 26th instant relative to the shipment of captured property from Wilmington to New York. Your inference as to the reasons for my order to General Dodge to ship the property to New York is entirely incorrect, and your understanding of the order itself is little less so. My order was simply in compliance with instructions from General Grant to ship the captured property to the quartermaster in New York, to be held there subject to the orders of the Secretary of War, and not turned over to the Treasury Department as you infer. If there is any question of right or wrong in this matter it is one with which you and I have nothing to do, since we are both simply obeying the orders of our superiors. I explained all this to you during our interview at Wilmington in March, and informed you what orders I had received and given on the subject. Through the neglect of one of my subordinates in falling to transmit my order to General Hawley, although known to yourself and to General Dodge, the order was disregarded. I fail to see in this that disposition to co-operate with me which you desire on the part of the military authorities toward yourself.

Very respectfully,

J. M. SCHOFIELD,

Major-General.

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*See April 27, p. 321.

#Not found as an inclosure, but see final agreement, forwarded by Schofield to Sherman, May 12, p. 482.

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Page 350 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.