Today in History:

691 Series I Volume XLVIII-I Serial 101 - Powder River Expedition Part I

Page 691 Chapter LX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. -UNION.

cavalry and infantry. The two most important guerrilla camps were broken up. Lieutenant Miles' services were invaluable. The marching qualities of the Eightieth U. S. Colored Infantry are excellent.

Very respectfully,

WILLARD SAYLES,

Colonel, Commanding.


HEADQUARTERS DEFENSES OF NEW ORLEANS,
New Orleans, January 31, 1865.

Colonel WILLARD SAYLES, Bayou Goula:

(Via Donaldsonville.)

Your telegram of to-day is received. General Sherman says you must catch some of those fellows if possible. The character of the guerrillas about Bayou Goula has been such that you will be justified in using hemp summarily in any case where the laws of war have been unmistakably violated. Do you succeed in supplying your cavalry with forage?

FREDERIC SPEED,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

NAPOLEONVILLE, LA., January 31, 1865.

Captain B. B. CAMPBELL, Assistant-Adjutant-General:

Captain Sayles has just returned, and reports the guerrilla party to be commanded by Whitaker. Followed him to and beyond Grand Bayou; could not overtake him. Our horses are too inferior to move rapidly.

GEO. R. DAVIS,

Major, Commanding Post.


HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF ARKANSAS,
Little Rock, Ark., January 31, 1865.

Lieutenant-Colonel CHRISTENSEN,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

COLONEL: Your communication of 21st instant, per Captain Melville, also two of 17th by mail, received yesterday. The instructions in reference to Fort Smith will be carried out without delay. The order for troops to proceed to Department of the Gulf and report to military division headquarters will by executed as promptly as possible. The troops now in the field toward Camden will, by their absence, cause some little delay, but troops to fill the call will be placed en route by regiments as fast as they can be disengaged, anticipating, wherever it can be done, the arrival of others to relieve those ordered out of the department. Orders issued yesterday for the immediate movement of the Thirty-fifth Wisconsin and Ninety-sixth Ohio. The following regiments will compose the detachment from Seventh Army Corps, viz: Twenty-ninth Iowa, present for duty, 600; Thirty-third Iowa, present for duty, 590; Twenty-seventh Wisconsin, present for duty, 600; Twenty-eighth Wisconsin, present for duty, 565; Fiftieth Indiana, present for duty, 400; Seventy-seventh Ohio, present for duty, 270; total, 3,025.

Very respectfully, yours, &c.,

J. J. REYNOLDS,

Major-General.


Page 691 Chapter LX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. -UNION.