Jyno. A. Rawlins, ] to Cuar. Xxix.] Correspondence, E1c. Union. 397, December 9, 1862
College Hill, December 9, 1862.
General GRANT, Commanding Thirteenth Army Corps. Oxford :
DEAR GENERAL: Colonel Grierson is about to start for Helena with your dispatches, and I also toward Memphis. When he returns he will report to you in person. Colonel Grierson has been with me all summer and I have repeatedly written to you and spoken inhis praise. He is the best cavalry officer I have yet had. I commend him specially to your consideration. He has already had assigned to him a brigade, but the cavalry has been so busy that he has not yet had his command. I ask for him anything you can do for his benefit and the good of the service. I know that you will soon appreciate his merits.
Yours, truly, W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General.
SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS, Hpqrs. ARMY IN THE FIELD, No. 18. } Oxford, Miss., December 9, 1862. * * * * * * *
II. The division commanded by Brigadier-General Denver, to be known as the First Division, is hereby assigned to the command of Major-General McPherson.
III. Brigadier-General Lauman will move one brigade of his present command to a point convenient for water on the line of the railroad, and from 4 to 6 miles south of Abbeville, to guard the road from that point south ; the other brigade to Waterford, to report to Col. J. V. Du Bois for further orders.
These dispositions being made, General Lauman will relieve General McKean in command of the Fourth Division, and bring it to Oxford with as little delay as practicable.
V. Women and children are hereafter to be excluded from the army in the field. Wing commanders.will see that all now with their respective commands are sent to Holly Springs or some point north of that place. Negro women and children and unemployed men will be sent to Chaplain J. Eaton, jr., superintendent of contrabands, Grand Junction, Tenn., who will provide for them. This is not intended to exclude authorized laundresses, hospital nurses, or officersâ servants, of which wing and division commanders are empowered to judge of the axpediency of retaining.
By order of Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant:
jyNO. A. RAWLINS, ]
Assistant Adjutant-General.
Cuar. XXIX.] CORRESPONDENCE, E1C.â UNION. 397
GENERAL serge HEADQUARTERS RIGHT WING,
No. 3. College Hill, December 9, 1862.
I. The battalion of regulars and a section of 20-pounder Parrott guns,
commanded by Lieutenant Hart, are hereby attached to the Second
Division, General M. L. Smith, and will proceed forthwith to join that