And whereas the militia, as thus organized in the said counties, is costing the State or the Confederate Government a very large sum of money, which we believe to be totally unnecessary for the proper officering the militia; And whereas we, a part of the tax-payers of the State and of the Confederate States, while we are willing to pay to the last dollar of our means the taxes necessary for the proper defense of our country, and have called upon the proper authorities to spare no expense that is or may be necessary for the efficient prosecution of the war in which we are engaged, yet we are unwilling to pay from three to four times the amount necessary for the proper defense of the country, whether that be as regards the whole expense of the war or the expense to be incurred in any particular locality or section of the country; And whereas we have unlimited confidence in the Government, that while many abuses may escape their notice and attention, yet, when brought properly to their notice, they will be corrected: Therefore, Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting the state of things set forth in this preamble is not known to the proper authorities for correcting the same. Resolved, That in the four counties above named there are not more effective men belonging to the militia than should constitute one regiment, and that the men now divided into four skeletons of regiments, with a full quota of regimental and staff officers and a much larger number of company officers than necessary, would be much more efficient for the defense of the said counties if thrown into one regiment and placed under the command of one colonel with one field officer in the other counties from which the colonel is not taken, to act as lieutenant-colonel or major, and a proper reduction of the number of companies. Resolved, That, as at present organized, there is not and cannot be any co-operation between the several regiments in the said counties for the defense of each, but if thrown into one regiment, under one commander, they might and would co-operate with each other by the order of the said commander whenever their services might be required for the defense of either county. Resolved, That we would not have the militia, by this arrangement we propose, withdrawn from either of the said counties, but would continue them in their counties respectively, under the command of their company officers and one field officer, subject to the order of the commanding officer, unless necessary temporarily to call them from one county to another for immediate defense. Resolved, That while the proposed arrangement would be more efficient than the present, it would not cost the Government and people of the State who pay the expenses of the war more than one-half of the present organization. Resolved, That a copy of these proceedings be sent by the secretary of this meeting to his excellency Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, to the governor of the State of Virginia, to Brigadier-General Holmes, and to Col. George E. Pickett, commanding the forces on the Rappahannock River. On motion, the meeting then adjourned. WM. T. JESSEE, Chairman. H. S. HATHAWAY, Secretary. STAUNTON, October 21, 1861. Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of War: DEAR SIR: Inclosed is an urgent letter from General Jackson, and I have done all I could to have the Fifty-eighth to move in accordance with his wishes, but am informed you have allowed them to remain for a short time. If it cannot move, I must ask you to send another regi. ment up with the least possible delay, to take position on the Hardy line. With great respect, your obedient servant, Major HARMAN: M. G. HARMAN, Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding. [Inclosure.] GREENBRIER, October 20, 1861. MAJOR: I have good reason to fear that a body of the enemy are making their way, by the direction of the Seneca route, towards Monterey. They may do us vast injury, unless we can meet them. They are plundering and devastating the country as they come. Is it possible, I would ask, that the Fifty-eighth Virginia Regiment, or any portion of it, will consent, under such circumstances, to remain in Staunton? I am lost in astonishment when I realize it. We are here in the immediate presence of a largely superior force. I cannot spare a man to go back, and yet this command, which could have rendered us so much service, and which I designed for this very duty, and which, had it moved, might have prevented, by its mere presence, this foray of the enemy, lingers in Staunton. Scarcely a day passes that we are not skirmishing with the enemy here, and our presence here is absolutely necessary at this time to the protection of both lines. For our country's sake, induce this regiment to move, and to move quickly. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, H. R. JACKSON, STAUNTON, VA., October 22, 1861. His Excellency PRESIDENT DAVIS, Richmond: DEAR SIR: I received on yesterday a pressing letter from General H. R. Jackson, commanding on the Monterey line, to urge the commanding officer of the Fifty-eighth Virginia Regiment to march immediately for Fork of Waters, on the Seneca road. I immediately telegraphed General S. Cooper, and he has ordered the regiment to move without delay. My object in writing to you is to urge the importance of having at least two regiments on the Hardy line to guard the Seneca road. It would be a serious affair indeed if the enemy were to push forward a force on that line and get possession of our supplies at Monterey and come in the rear of our forces on the Alleghany and at Greenbrier River, by which movement, they having a strong force at Cheat Mountain, our forces would be surrounded. The Fifty-eighth Virginia Regiment has a great many men sick in the hospital, and numbers scarcely 400 effective men. I inclose you a copy of General Jackson's letter. I fear that the Seneca road, not being guarded at all, gives an opportunity for pretended friends to pass and give information to the enemy which may induce this movement on their part. I hope you will send a regiment up immediately, if it can possibly be done, if you concur in the importance I attach to guarding this line. With the highest consideration, I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, M. G. HARMAN, Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding. P. S.-I inclosed to the Secretary of War a copy of General Jackson's letter, and also a letter from the commander of the post of Monterey,* which I should like you to see. CENTREVILLE, October 22, 1861. Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of War: I think that the enemy cannot land near Occoquan without being discovered by our pickets. The report cannot be true. The ordnance officer reports that he can arm 1,000 men with muskets left unmarked, by sick men probably. Please send the men. GENERAL ORDERS, J. E. JOHNSTON. ADJT. AND INSP. GEN.'S OFFICE, 1. A department is established, to be known and designated as the Department of Northern Virginia. It will be composed of the three following districts, viz: The Valley District, the Potomac District, and the Aquia District. The Valley District will embrace the section of country between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Mountains, the Potomac District between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the left bank of Powell's River, and the Aquia District between Powell's River and the mouth of the Potomac, including the Northern Neck, and embracing the counties on either side of the Rappahannock River from its mouth to Fredericksburg. 2. General J. E. Johnston is assigned to the command of the Department of Northern Virginia, General P. G. T. Beauregard to the command of the Potomac District, Maj. Gen. T. H. Holmes to the command of the Aquia District, and Maj. Gen. T. J. Jackson to the command of the Valley District. 3. The troops serving in the Potomac District will be brigaded and formed into divisions, as follows: First division, under command of Major-General Van Dorn: First Brigade, Brigadier-General Clark, to consist of four Mississippi regiments; Second Brigade, Brigadier-General Whiting, to consist of five Mississippi regiments; Third Brigade, Brigadier-General Stuart, to consist of the cavalry of the army of this district, to be united in one brigade; Fourth Brigade, the Hampton Legion, under Colonel Hampton. Second Division, under command of Maj. Gen. G. W. Smith: First Brigade, Brigadier-General Ewell, to consist of four Virginia regiments; Second Brigade, Brig. Gen. S. Jones, to consist of four Virginia regiments; Third Brigade, Brigadier-General Early, to consist of four Virginia regiments; Fourth Brigade, BrigadierGeneral Crittenden, to consist of two Virginia regiments, two Tennessee *Not found. 58 R R-VOL V regiments, and one Kentucky regiment. Third Division, under command of Major-General Longstreet: First Brigade, Brig. Gen. D. R. Jones, to consist of four South Carolina regiments; Second Brigade, BrigadierGeneral Bonham, to consist of four South Carolina regiments; Third Brigade, Brigadier-General Wilcox, to consist of four Alabama regiments; Fourth Brigade, Brigadier General Rodes, to consist of four Alabama regiments; Fifth Brigade, Brigadier-General Taylor, to consist of five Louisiana regiments. Fourth Division, under the command of Maj. Gen. E. K. Smith: First Brigade, Brigadier-General Walker, to consist of four Georgia regiments; Second Brigade, Brigadier-General Toombs, to consist of four Georgia regiments; Third Brigade, Brigadier-General Elzey, to consist of three Georgia regiments and one Mary. land regiment; Fourth Brigade, Brigadier-General Evans, to consist of five North Carolina regiments; Fifth Brigade, Brigadier-General Wigfall, to consist of three Texas regiments and one Louisiana regiment. The particular regiments for these several brigades will be designated by the commanding general of the Department of Northern Virginia, in conformity to this programme, according to States. The arrangements will be gradually carried into effect as soon as, in the judgment of the commanding general, it can be safely done under present exigencies.* By command of the Secretary of War: S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General. RICHMOND, October 23, 1861. General JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, Centreville: I will send you 1,000 unarmed men immediately. Colonel Rarsom marches with his regiment of cavalry to-morrow to join you. J. P. BENJAMIN, Acting Secretary of War. LEWISBURG, VA., Wednesday, October 23, 1861. G. W. MUNFORD, Esq., Secretary of the Commonwealth: DEAR SIR: I hope that you will excuse me for troubling you with a line, and if you are not the proper person to write to on such subjects, do, if you please, pass this line to the proper officer. General Loring's command is falling back to this place, which is west of Meadow Bluff, and from here they go northward to Greenbrier River Bridge, where it is said that the Federalists are pressing a regiment left to guard that pass. One regiment passed late last evening, and another regiment is passing while I write. It is cold and raw and showery, and some of the regiment that passed this morning came in last night, and in the dark and wet and mud, poor fellows, could get no place to sleep or anything to eat. A distant relative of mine here of the name of Wetzel provided for six of them. Many lay out in the rain all night; many drank and caroused all night, and I am really fearful that it is this unnecessary exposure that has got so many on the sick list. For a long time yet Lewisburg must be the base of operations, and there could be, and ought to be, a shed built here, as well to protect [the men] from the weather [and] such military stores as remain here for days * Paragraph 3 modified by G. O., No. 18. See November 16, post. in their transit from Jackson's River Station to the army. A shed, with abundance of straw in it, in which detachments of troops passing to and fro might sleep, is a great desideratum, inasmuch as it would convince our citizen soldiery that all is done that it is possible to do to protect them from exposure, and such a shelter, with such feelings, would do much to exempt them from the great sickness that now desolates these western camps. The expense could not be much of such an erection, and the benefits would be great. The teams are also suffering severely for want of forage. That could be obviated in some degree by a very simple process, not adopted by the Quartermaster's Department, and yet so obvious that any one is surprised at its non-adoption, unless it is purposely omitted. Why could not each wagon that hauls flour or other heavy material for the army from any of the depots take with them from three to five hundred pounds of hay or blades? It would fill the wagon; it would protect the load from the weather; it would sustain the transportation attached to the moving columns of the army; it would prevent the loss of stock, and enable the army to move with more alacrity and facility. Then there is a very great mistake in hauling flour to the army in the mountains, where they have nothing but flour and meat, and the consequence is indigestible bread, and consequently sickness. A bakery established anywhere in the rear, either at Jackson's River Station or Covington, 9 miles west of that, could bake bread for the army, and the weight would not be greater to haul in bread or crackers than in flour; and if you could not put a load of bread in a wagon, the wagons could be a little altered so that a load could be put on them, or under other circumstances a heavy package of some sort could be put in each bread wagon, so as to give the necessary weight to haul. The expense would be but small, and the gain great in the increased health and efficiency of the men—the fewer hospitals; for, if what I have heard be true, the expense of the hospital at White Sulphur will equal, or nearly equal, the expense of the transportation from Jackson's River Station to the army. As to vegetables, pounded hominy would be the most convenient, palatable, and healthy that the army could get, winter or summer, and it is the easiest dressed for eating of anything, and could be so easily supplied to each army, and the machines for cracking the corn and hulling it are so abundant and cheap, that it is to me wonderful that some department of the Army had not introduced it. I will venture to say that it is far better than rice, and could be supplied at one-third the cost of that article per pound. The Tennessee and Georgia troops, with many of whom I have talked, are very averse to serving in the mountains. The climate does not suit them, and toiling up the mountains on marches breaks them down directly. It is strange that they should be sent here to serve while many regiments raised in the mountains, accustomed to the inequalities of the surface of the earth, inured to the rigors of the climate, all having homes or relatives to defend, should be retained in Eastern Virginia and the defense of their homes intrusted to strangers unaccustomed to so rough a country and so bleak a climate. The Twenty-seventh Virginia Regiment, so effective at Manassas, came from Greenbrier, Monroe, and Alleghany Counties, and perhaps a company or two from Rockbridge. I am no military man. Age has disabled me from bearing the fatigues of a campaign, and if that were not so, blindness has disqualified me from so doing. Amaurosis has wholly obscured one eye, and the other one sympathizes with it. I therefore do not pretend to be a military |