Jno. A. Rawlins to Lorenzo Thomas, August 6, 1862
August 6, 1862.
August 6, 1862. General MorGaAn, Tuscumbia:
You will seize all cotton in the name of United States Government; give receipts of division quartermasters to the owners or claimants, specifying the dates, of quantity taken; invoice the same by the most expeditious means; write in duplicate to United States quartermaster, Cairo, Ill., sending a triplicate to these headquarters. Whenever bridges or other damage to the railroad requires repair, the negroes of the neighborhood or others with secession proclivities will be taken for the purpose and returned when no longer required; slaves of persons hostile to the Government to be taken in preference: Notify the inhabitants within reach of your lines that any words or actions hostile to the Government will oblige you to treat the parties as enemies, who can receive only the rights of belligerents, whose property belongs to the United States. The women and children will be ordered beyond our lines, their
property seized for the benefit of the United States, and their houses urned.,
Cnap. XXTX.] CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.âUNION. 155
Supply your command with long forage by cutting eorn from the fields and partially drying it in the sun, cutting it up and feeding with salt for your stock, the quartermasters to take up and account for it; use that of rebels in preference.
W. L. ELLIOTT, Brigadier-General.
Do you wish me to occupy Tooneâs Station and guard the railroad as before your recent order? . L. F. ROSS,
GENERAL ORDERS, HpQRS. DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE, No. 69. Oorinth, Miss., August 6, 1862.
I. Hereafter no coin will be permitted to pass south of Cairo or Columbus except such as is carried by Government agents and for Government use. The same restriction will be observed at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson.
II. Neither coin, Treasury notes, or goods will be permitted to pass south of Memphis except for the use of the army. The payment of cash for any article of use in aid of the rebellion for Southern products will be discouraged in every way possible.
III. All cotton and other articles coming from points below Memphis will be seized and sold for the benefit of whom it may concern, the proceeds being used by the quartermaster until directed by proper authority to turn them over to other parties, unless the same has been passed by special permit from the Treasury Department.
By order of Major-General Grant:
Assistant Adjutant-General.
CoRINTH, August 7, 1862.
Brig. Gen. LORENZO THOMAS,
Washington, D. O.:
News from the front continues to indicate movement of the rebels toward Chattanooga. My opinion is that the best troops are being sent
to Richmond, and conscripts, with a little leaven from the more disciplined, are left to hold the Western army in check.