Summary:
Confederate Colonel William B. Taliaferro writes C. L. Stevenson in November,
1861, to discuss troop movements in western Virginia, including the return of
some to Staunton. Taliaferro also discusses supplies drawn from Staunton, and
provisions for the arrest of deserters in the city.
HDQRS.,
Col. C. L. STEVENSON,
Acting Assistant
Adjutant-Gen.:
McDowell,
November 28, 1861.
COL.:
I received your communication of yesterday at 2.30 p. m. to-day. I had, as intimated in my communication of last evening, halted the four regiments at this point, and as the climate here is much milder than at Monterey will await here the instructions of the commanding general. I inclose the order of Gen. Jackson, commanding this line, assigning Col. Johnson to the command of the troops at Alleghany and Crab Bottom, and assigning me to the command at Monterey and Fork of Waters. Since that time I was ordered to take command of the troops en route for Staunton and rejoin my command as limited to those regiments. Gen. Jackson preceded this command to Staunton, and may have gone on to Richmond, but I have forwarded, after opening, all official communications directed to the commanding officer of the line to Col. Barton, his adjutant-general at Staunton. I have received no orders to assume command of the Monterey Line, and I believe it is an undetermined point whether Col. Johnson or myself is that ranking officer. All difficulty and embarrassment on that score was avoided by the assignment made by Gen. Jackson's order. Your communication is addressed to the commanding officer on the Monterey Line, and the senior officer would certainly have been Col. Johnson reached Staunton and gone forward. As it is I will address a communication to Col. Johnson, informing him of the commanding general's instructions to hold Col. Scott's regiment in readiness to march with camp equipage and ammunition, and issue an order to Col. Goode to the same effect. I will cause the regiments here to be supplied with camp equipage and ammunition if it can be procured at Monterey; otherwise I will send to Staunton for it. I know there are no extra percussion caps at Monterey and no ammunition for rifles, as I have drawn requisitions since the 1st of August which have not yet been filled. I will cause the quartermaster and commissary to make reports of the amount of clothing, &c., and commissary stores at Alleghany and Monterey, and forward as soon as possible. We have for the troops here very ample transportation, more than sufficient, but most of the wagons and teams are pressed, and the quartermaster at Staunton is urgently pressing their return to that point. There is no transportation for any other troops besides these four regiments. The roads are so bad and the ice renders the tents so heavy that double the ordinary transportation is required. I have retained the pressed teams to aid the transportation to Staunton, and ask the instructions of the general commanding as to whether I shall longer detain them. Should they be retained any time, the transportation of supplies must to that extent be stopped from Staunton, and should they go on there will be not sufficient transportation for the troops. The diseases incident to the terrible exposure to which the men have been subjected has greatly reduced the strength of the command. A number of men from the command on this line left Camp Alleghany at the first movement of the troops. Gen. Jackson sent forward an officer with a detachment of cavalry to arrest them. Some of them have been sent back. I have forwarded to Staunton the names of all those who have left since I assumed the command of the regiments to Col. Barton, acting assistant adjutant-general, and requested him to arrest them and have them imprisoned until we should reach that place, or returned to their regiments should our march be arrested. I have adopted measures which I hope will correct this disgrace in future, and I shall use every exertion to increase the discipline of the command, but the number of field officers is entirely inadequate. Col. Ramsey, First Georgia, is absent on leave. Col. Rust is attending the session of Congress; Col. Scott, the convention; Col. Fulkerson is in arrest; Lieut.-Col. Clarke is in arrest and has tendered his resignation; Lieut.-Col. Hubard is absent sick, as is Lieut.-Col. Taliaferro. Maj. Jones is on leave, so the regiment is (rest illegible)
W. B. TALIAFERRO, Col., &c.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 51, Serial No. 108, Pages 395, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
