Jno. A. Rawlins to You will immediately place Brigadier-General Steele in command of, November 7, 1862
Jackson, November 7, 1862.
General GRANT: Some person must be appointed to take charge of the railroad. As it stands, there is no system nor order. It must be done at once. S. A. HURLBUT, Major- General.
JACKSON, November 7, 1862. Major-General GRANT:
The Twentieth are ready to move as soon as the road is open. I will send Stevenson’s brigade directly after, or, if you order it, will march them by land. Does General McPherson need Foster’s cavalry? It so, will send it through. My cavalry force here is very small. What shall be done with the Engineer Regiment ?
SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS, Hpqrs. DEPT. OF THE TENNESSEE, No. 1 In Field, La Grange, Tenn., Nov. 7, 1862.
It is with extreme regret that the general commanding has had his attention called to the gross acts of vandalism committed by some of the men composing the two wings of the army on the march from Corinth and Bolivar to this place. Houses have been plundered and burned down, fencing destroyed, and citizens frightened without an inquiry as to their status in this rebellion; cattle and hogs shot and stock driven off, without any observance of the rules prescribed in general orders for taking such property for public use. Such acts are punishable with death by the Articles of War and existing orders. They are calculated to destroy the efficiency of an army and to make open enemies of those who before, if not friends, were at least non-combatants.
Officers are more to biame for these acts of violence than the men who commit them, and in future will be held to a strict accountability. If they will perform their duty, obedience can be enforced in the ranks.
In future marches all men will be kept in the ranks, and regimental commanders held accountable for their good conduct. It is the duty of regimental commanders, and within their power if they are worthy of the position they hold, to enforce attention to duty on the part of company officers.
All derelictions of duty within any regiment in future will be reported by brigade commanders, through the proper channels, to headquarters of the wing to which they may belong, to the end that the offenders may be brought to trial or immediate dismissal from the service and publicly disgraced.
All men who straggle from their companies and are captured by the enemy will be reported to the general headquarters, so that they may be dishonorably discharged, whereby they will forfeit all future and back pay and allowances, and Government will be protected from exchanging a prisoner captured in actual conflict for one who by his worthlessness and disregard for the good of the service has become a captive.
This order will be read on parade before each regiment and detachment for three successive evenings.
By command of Maj. Gen. U. 8. Grant:
Assistant Adjutant-General.
WASHINGTON, D. C., November 8, 1862.
Major-General CuRrTIS, Saint Louis :
You will immediately place Brigadier-General Steele in command of
the troops in Helena, and send with him all the troops from the vicinity
of Pilot Knob that can be spared.