Unknown to Brigadier-General Charles McCook, November 8, 1861

Brigadier-General McCoox, Camp Nevin : SIR: [have noinstructions from Government on the subject of negroes. My opinion is that the laws of the State of Kentucky are in full force, and that negroes must be surrendered on application of their masters or agents or delivered over to the sheriff of the county. We have nothing to do with them at all, and you should not let them take refuge in camp. It forms a source of misrepresentation, by which Union men are estranged from our cause. I know it is almost impossible for you to ascertain in any case the owner ofthe negro. But so it is; his word is not taken in evidence, and you will send them away. lam, yours, W. T. SHERMAN, Brigadier-General, Commanding.

LOUISVILLE, Ky., November 8, 1861. (Received November 9.) General GEORGE H. THOMAS, Commanding, Crab Orchard:

SIR: Yours of November 6 is received. At present I think the Turnpike Company must be satisfied with a promise to pay.

As soon as the Kentucky volunteers organize in such a way as to enable me to estimate for them, I will order the establishment of a depot at Lebanon. I have beenimpressed of its importance from the first.

You know how impossible it is for me to obtain good, well-drilled regiments. I could not possibly send you three or four. There are three regiments in Ohio nearly ready to come, but of course they are fresh troops. Mr. Maynard still presses the East Tennessee expedition. I do not doubt its importance, but I know we have not force enough and transportation to undertake it. Instead of dispersing our efforts we should concentrate; and as soon as possible our forces must be brought nearer together. In the mean time do the best you can.

Yours W. T. SHERMAN, Brigadier- General.

LONDON, KY., November 8, 1861. (Received November 9.)

GENERAL: Yours of the 7th instant, with copy of letter to Governor Andrew Johnson, is before me, and it is with extreme satisfaction that I note the decided manner in which the case is laid down to Governor Johnson. .

This outside pressure has become intolerable and must be met with firmness, or the Army may as well be disbanded.

With importunate citizens on one side and meddlesome reporters for papers on the other, I can scarce find time to attend to the appropriate duties of my position. By the way, cannot something be done to rid – our camps of this latter class? Ihave really reached that point that I am afraid to address my staff officer above a whisper in my own tent. My most trivial remarks to my offieers are caught up, magnified, and embellished, and appear in print as my “expressed opinions,” much to the surprise of myself and those to whom my remarks were addressed,

thus keeping me continually in a false position with my superior officers and the country.

So far as a forward movement is concerned, I have never urged it; do not now urge it; but on the contrary believe that in the present condition of my command (having a large sick list) it would be most decidedly imprudent. I am nevertheless ready to obey your order to advance, come when it may. That is a question for my superiors, and not for me, to determine.

After eight days of labor on the part of Captain Everett, he has returned the regimental monthly returns to the respective commanders, to be forwarded direct to your headquarters; Captain Everett having

declared his inability to obtain from any one regiment anything like a.

passable document, or even the data upon whieh he could frame one. My eonsolidated morning reports will be commenced on the 10th and promptly eontinued as per orders every ten days, and forwarded upon the days upon which they are made. : Please furnish the regimental commanders with blanks in time for the close of the present month, when, perhaps, by “line upon line and precept upon precept,” they may be brought to produce a more businesslike sheet in future. 1 Very respeetfully, yours, ! A. SCHOEPF, Drigadier- General.