Summary:
Union General George Morell writes to General-in-Chief Halleck describing the
state of defenses along the Potomac in November, 1862. Morell suggests that
troops organizing in Pennsylvania be sent to Chambersburg to help bolster his
line.
Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK,
Gen.-in-Chief, U. S. Army,
Washington:
Hagerstown, Md.,
November 14, 1862.
GEN.:
I have the honor to acknowledge, by telegraph, the receipt of your dispatch of this morning, directing me to assume command of the troops left by Gen. McClellan on the Upper Potomac, and to co-operate with Gen. Kelley against Jackson.
Special Orders, Nos. 305 and 306, current series, Hdqrs. Army of the Potomac, placed me in command from the mouth of the Antietam to Cumberland, including the brigades of Gen.'s Kenly and Kelley. Your order enlarges that command to an extent which will, I presume, be specified in writing.
From the mouth of the Antietam to Cherry Run the Potomac is watched by two brigades, Gen.'s Gordon's and Kenly's, headquarters of the former at Sharpsburg, of the latter at Williamsport, with the Twelfth Illinois and a detachment of the First Maryland Cavalry. From Cherry Run to Cumberland the distance is covered by the First New York and Twelfth Pennsylvania Cavalry and part of Gen. Kelley's brigade, which extends westward to Parkersburg.
Gen. Gordon's last report shows an aggregate present of 2,668, and Gen. Kenly's of 2,350; total, 5,018, barely sufficient for observation, with indispensable reserves at certain points. The enemy are reported as, yesterday, the main body at Winchester, with a force toward Martinsburg, at Pughtown, and on the Romney road, near Cacapon Bridge, a position indicating a movement into Western Virginia, which Gen. Kelley apprehends, and says he has not force sufficient to repel it. I ought not to take a man from this part of the line, and to send him a force capable of rendering any service would so weaken it as to invite aggression.
Troops are now being organized in this State and Pennsylvania. Why cannot some of them be ordered here, to Chambersburg, and to Cumberland? The safety of this place consists chiefly in the absence of inducement to attack it, rather than its means of defense.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
GEO. W. MORELL,
Maj.-Gen.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 19, Serial No. 28, Pages 581-582, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
