Unknown to Thomas W. Sherman, February 18, 1862

Brig. Gen. THOMAS W. SHERMAN, Commanding at Port Royal, S. C.:

GENERAL: You are hereby directed to afford protection, subsistence, and facilities, so far as may be consistent with the interests of the service and the duties and the objects of your command, to all persons who may present to you written permits, issued to them under the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury, setting forth that said persons have proceeded to Port Royal under the sanction of the Government, for the collection, safe-keeping, and disposition of cotton, rice, and other property abandoned by the late possessors within your military department, and for the regulation and employment of persons of color lately held to service or labor by enemies of the United States, and now within the oceupying lines and under the military protection of the Army.

Such permits, signed by the collector of the customs at New York City, will be considered by you as emanating from the Treasury Department.

Under the head of subsistence will be included rations to such persons as may be employed under the direction of the Treasury Department in the temporary charge of abandoned plantations, or, with its sanction, in labors for the instruction and improvement of the laboring

population. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

ENGINEER OFFICE, February 21, 1862. [Maj. Gen. GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN]:

DEAR GENERAL: The inclosed pages were drawn up by Colonel Woodbury at my request. I do not suppose you will have time to read them; but you may skim over them to get the main points, and the information may be useful in directing future operations. It is hardly likely you would care just now to get up an expedition of the magnitude required to take Charleston (it appears to be the most difficult point of the whole coast ; I mean its forts), but you might hereafter find occasion to attack. Fort Pulaski taken—and that ought to be taken speedily—perhaps Sherman’s and Burnside’s army might unite upon Charleston. Woodbury thinks that Burnside can take Forts Macon and Caswell; if so, it may be a question whether he had not better take these than go to Goldsborough. But all these things are conjectural, and I give you the data, as much as I can, to post you for whatever may turn up.

If noc Tennessee prisoners are really disposed to take the oath of allegiance, would it not be a wise policy to let them go home? We want to raise the State in our favor as speedily as possible.

You had better return me these notes as soon as you have glanced at them, as they will be of more use in my hands than yours just now.

respectfully, We may assume that we have not now the means required to carry the