Today in History:

979 Series I Volume XXVII-III Serial 45 - Gettysburg Campaign Part III

Page 979 Chapter XXXIX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - CONFEDERATE.

Enemy left nothing. Suffolk not destroyed. Special instructions from Corcoran prohibiting it. Two gunboats in Nansemond. Colonel [J. R.] Griffin will reconnoiter again to-day.

E. B. MONTAGUE,

Colonel, Commanding.

GORDONSVILLE, July 7, 1863.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General:

Your dispatch of to-day received. General Lee's order to me to move my brigade here was dated 23rd [ultimo]. I cannot tell whether it was prior or subsequent to his letter. I cannot move by the way of Culpeper Court-House. Railroad bridge at Rapidan washed away; water too high to ford. My nearest practicable route to Winchester will be via Madison Court-House, Sperryville, and Chester Gap. Shall I move that way?

M. D. CORSE,

Brigadier-General.

[Indorsement.]

RICHMOND, VA., July 7, 1863.

Brigadier General M. D. CORSE,

Gordonsville, Va.:

Move on to Winchester by the nearest practicable route.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

SOUTH ANNA BRIDGE,

July 7, 1863.

Major ARCHER ANDERSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

MAJOR: As soon as I arrived here, thinking the Yankees designed an attack either on Gordonsville or the Central Railroad, I sent out two companies to cut their line of march, find out their force, &c. These companies went as far as the Mattapony. The enemy on the east side of the Pamunkey did not go higher than Littlepage's Bridge, at which point they crossed and recrossed, and not beyond the Fredericksburg road on the west side. They are now marching for the White House, down the east bank of the Pamunkey. I made a requisition for a 10-pounder Parrot gun for my battery, and it was promised me as soon as they had any. If the Ordnance Department has one now, I wish you would have it sent down. I will have the works at these two bridges finished to-morrow. I will send Colonel Baker to the Old Church to-morrow. Are my two regiments to be sent up? Will not the defeat of Meade take Dix's force to Washington?

I again call the general's attention to the fact that these convalescents are without cooking utensils and flies. More than half of them are said by the doctors to be sick, too sick, in fact, to be here excepting under pressing circumstances.

Very respectfully,

JNO. R. COOKE,

Brigadier-General.


Page 979 Chapter XXXIX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - CONFEDERATE.