Today in History:

655 Series I Volume XLV-II Serial 94 - Franklin - Nashville Part II

Page 655 Chapter LVII] CORRESPONDENCE, ETC,-CONFEDERATE.


HEADQUARTERS LEE'S CORPS, Near Nashville, Tenn.., December 6, 1864.

Major General C. L. STEVENSON,
Commanding Division:

GENERAL: General Lee directs that where you have good abatis in your front you will withdraw your troops as far as possible, in complete organization, and bivouac them at some safe place in rear and convenient to the line, leaving a single rank in the trenches.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. W. RATCHFORD,

Assistant Adjutant-General.


HEADQUARTERS, Six Miles from Nashville, on Franklin Pike, December 6, 1864.

Brigadier-General RODDEY,
Commanding Cavalry:

General Hood directs that you will join the army here, with your command, as soon as possible, leaving a garrison, however, at Decatur, and any wagons you can spare for the purpose of hauling material for building a bridge over the river at Decatur. As you march to join the army destroy as much as you can of the railroad between Huntsville and Stevenson and between Stevenson and Murfreesborough.

A. P. MASON,

Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

MOBILLE, ALA., December 6, 1864.

Colonel GEORGE WILLIAM BRENT,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Montgomery, Ala.:

COLONEL: The following is respectfully submitted for the information of General Beauregard, and gives an account of engineering operations bearing upon the safety of the communications of the Army of Tennessee:

At Corinth, Fort Williams, the stronghold of the place, is repaired, made self-sustaining, and needs but its garrison (200 men) and its armament (six field pieces, viz, two Parrotts, two Napoleon, and two howitzers) to make it hold out against a large force until starved into surrender. By the present date it is expected that the remaining points around the town are finished and also ready to be manned; wells and bombproof will then be prepared in all. A good position for batteries to defend the passage of the river against gunboats is reported four miles below Savannah, the western being the concave side and its banks being sufficiently elevated to command the ground opposite; good roads lead to and from this crossing. The battery at Chickasaw Creek is being rapidly completed. Buoys for torpedoes, constructed in accordance with General Beauregard's plan, are commenced, and the torpedoes first sent have arrived. The reserve pontoon boats to be collected at Corinth will reach about as follows:

At Corinth or en route: Pontoon-boats.

December 5...........................................32

December 12..........................................10

December 19..........................................20

December 26..........................................20

December 31..........................................18

Making the number ordered...........................100


Page 655 Chapter LVII] CORRESPONDENCE, ETC,-CONFEDERATE.