Today in History:

669 Series I Volume XIII- Serial 19 - Missouri - Arkansas Campaign

Page 669 Chapter XXV. CORRESPONDENCE,ETC.-UNION.

here in the winter. You will therefore see that my inquiries and applications should, if possible, be immediately attended to.

JNO. POPE,

Major-General.

WASHINGTON, D. C., September 25, 1862.

Major-General POPE,

Saint Paul, Minn.:

Yours of the 23rd received. I am informed that it will be impossible to give you all the supplies you ask for, but all that is possible will be done. Move very light and keep down the transportation. Use mountain howitzers instead of heavier field pieces. A part of your provisions and supplies can probably be transported by contract, using the wagons and teams of the settlers who have been driven from their homes. It is hoped that the campaign will be a short one, and that temporary expedients will be resorted to for moving your supplies instead of making large purchases of wagons and animals. The most rigid economy must be enforced in all the departments of your command. It is believed that the troops at Fort Wayne have bee exchanged. I shall know as soon as the lists are received from Fort Monroe.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

WASHINGTON, September 25, 1862.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: On receiving your letter of the 23rd I immediately telegraphed to General Pope, and have just received his reply, from which it appears that he now has about 5,600 troops, 1,200 of whom are not yet armed. He says that he is advised by the War Department to expect about 9,000 paroled prisoners for service against the Indians. He does not ask for any more, and I am advised by others that 14,000 or 15,000 men are as many as can be used to advantage. I have advised General Pope to make requisitions for a number of mountain howitzers, as heavier artillery cannot be transported so readily. I have also suggested to him to use of hired teams for the transportation of his supplies form the head of navigation to his principal depots. It is said that many of the settlers driven from their homes on the frontiers have wagons and teams which could be hired for that purpose at reasonable rates.

I would remark that all supplies for the troops operating in the Indian country should be sent forward so as to reach the head of navigation before the rivers are closed by ice. Sioux City and Saint Paul will probably be the main depots, the former for Dakota and the latter for Minnesota and the north.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

SAINT PAUL, MINN., September 25, 1862.

Major-General HALLECK,

Washington, D. C.:

Your dispatch of this date received. I have bought nothing except horses to mount infantry upon. I have no cavalry and see no hope of


Page 669 Chapter XXV. CORRESPONDENCE,ETC.-UNION.