Today in History:

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

Page 942 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.

Mississippi: Report of Captain Marsh, Memphis, Tenn., December 19, 1864, locates two or three regiments of cavalry and small infantry force at Meridian, Miss.; 350 Federal prisoners are confined there. General Gardner's headquarters were very lately at Jackson. No force there save a guard of fifty men. Colonel Wood is said to have a regiment of cavalry on Big Black River. General Roddey commands at Corinth, Miss., and is fortifying the place. Reports of number of troops there are conflicting. All agree that there is a concentration at that point. The force at Corinth is the only formidable one in the State.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

FRANK W. MARSTON,

Major and Chief Signal Office, Mil. Div. of West Mississippi.


HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI,
New Orleans, La., December 27, 1864.

Brigadier General JAMES TOTTEN,

Chief of Ord. and Arty., Mil. Div. of W. Miss., New Orleans, La.:

GENERAL: The major-general commanding directs that the following batteries of the Reserve Corps now stationed on the upper part of the river - viz, the Fourth Massachusetts at memphis; the Fifteenth Massachusetts at memphis; the Twenty-sixth New York at Memphis; the Second Connecticut and Seventh Massachusetts at White River - be at once ordered to this city; the orders to be sent through the commanding generals of the Department of Mississippi and Arkansas respectively.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.


HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI,
New Orleans, La., December 27, 1864.

Major General S. A. HURLBUT,

Commanding Department of the Gulf, New Orleans, La.:

SIR: I am instructed by the major-general commanding to say that he thinks there is no immediate necessity for sending an additional force to Ship Island. He only wishes to know why it had not been sent there, as the order was given by him some ten days ago, or more. The commanding general has ordered all the cavalry arriving from Pascagoula to report to you to be transferred to Baton Rouge and Morganza in such proportions as you think best, except that the reserve cavalry should, as far as possible, be concentrated at Baton Rouge. The future permanent disposition of the cavalry will be determined when all has arrived. While in this city it is, of course, all under your sole control.

Very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,

C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.


Page 942 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.