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678 Series I Volume XLI-IV Serial 86 - Price's Missouri Expedition Part IV

Page 678 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.

LITTLE ROCK, ARK., November 25, 1864.

Brigadier General POWELL CLAYTON,

Pine Bluff, Ark.:

You will order the Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry to this place as soon as this bad spell of weather is over.

By order of Brigadier General E. A. Carr:

C. H. DYER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.


HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES, Natchez, Miss., November 25, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel C. T. CHRISTENSEN,
Assistant Adjutant-General:

SIR: Referring to the dispatch of General Benton from Baton Rouge, La., November 21, 11 a. m., concerning the crossing of Griffith (of which printed copy was sent me), I advise you that Griffith had been to his home in Arkansas, on furlough, with some 300 men. If this crossing took place, it was doubtless this party returning.

Respectfully, yours, &c.,

M. BRAYMAN,

Brigadier-General.


HDQRS. DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE AND VICKSBURG, November 25, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel C. T. CHRISTENSEN,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Mil. Div. of West Mississippi:

My pontoons were laid and two regiments of cavalry scouted the three roads toward Jackson without meeting any enemy except scouts. They returned to the Big Black last night, and the whole cavalry and two batteries started at 4 o'clock this morning toward Benton, with the intention of destroying the Mississippi Central road. I am of opinion they will do it. To-morrow morning I send a gun-boat and transport to Yazoo City with supplies.

The information gathered thus far is that Wirt Adams and most of his force has been called north by Beauregard. Adams is at Holly Springs. Cars are running to the Tallahatchie, and the enemy are building the bridge there, when they will run to Grand Junction.

From all the information I can gather we have caught Gardner at Jackson with not over 1,800 men. After destroying the railroad, if I find there is much property and but few troops at Jackson, I shall go there with about 2,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, to destroy the road still farther and such property as there is.

Reports are rife in the country beyond Big Black of the death of Hood from erysipelas. Beauregard has ordered everything of life to be killed and everything of substance to be burned in front of Sherman's advance which can sustain him.

The belief in the country is not that Beauregard will attack Memphis, but Nashville.

Very respectfully,

N. J. T. DANA,

Major-General.


Page 678 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.