Today in History:

600 Series I Volume XXXIV-II Serial 62 - Red River Campaign Part II

Page 600 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter XLVI.


HEADQUARTERS THIRTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Pass Cavallo, Tex., March 14, 1864.

General DANA:

General McClernand will send the Texas scouts with a staff officer to-morrow morning on a reconnaissance toward Saint Joseph's Island, and desires you to send to-night to this officer the countersign for the next five or six days.

With very great respect,

SAMUEL CALDWELL,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.


HDQRS. FIRST DIVISION, THIRTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Matagorda Island, Tex., March 14, 1864.

Colonel JOHN C. COBB,

Commanding Provisional Brigade:

COLONEL: By direction of the major-general commanding, I have the honor to inclose you a copy of a communication received from the corps commander to-day in reference to the accident at the bayou.

In accordance with Major-General McClernand's wish, as expressed in the inclosed letter, you are instructed to prefer charges, carefully and strongly drawn, against the lieutenant of your regiment in charge of the ferry when the catastrophe of yesterday occurred, and send the same in to these headquarters, to the end that an investigation may bead and justice done.*

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

B. WILSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Inclosure.]


HEADQUARTERS THIRTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Pass Cavallo, Tex., March 14, 1864.

Major-General DANA,

Commanding First Division:

GENERAL: Your dispatch of the 13th instant is received. I am glad to hear that the force lately at Indianola is already over the bayous, or soon will be.

As to the case of Lieutenant [Stanton], of the Engineers, in charge of the ferry when the catastrophe of yesterday occurred, I have to say that it is of such a character as seems to me in propriety to require a formal investigation. The officer himself, even if innocent, must desire to be cleared by a proper tribunal. If such investigation should disclose negligence or willfulness on the part of the major of the Sixty-ninth Indiana, or other officers, they will be dealt with accordingly.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN A. McCLERNAND,

Major-General, Commanding.

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* A charge of "neglect of duty" was preferred March 15, 1864, against Lieutenant Amos C. Stanton, but no record of further action is found.

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Page 600 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter XLVI.