General Mansfield can take temporary charge of Fort Monroe and its dependencies until the army arrives there. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEO. B. MCCLELLAN, Commodore HIRAM PAULDING, Major-General. NAVY DEPARTMENT, March 17, 1862-12.35 p. m. Commandant Navy-Yard, New York: Send what gunboats you have at the yard to Hampton Roads at once. Answer by telegraph which they are and when they can sail. Capt. WILLIAM L. HUDSON, Commandant Navy-Yard, Boston: Send any gunboats you have at the once. GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of the Navy. NAVY DEPARTMENT, March 17, 1862-2.45 p. m. yard to Hampton Roads at Answer by telegraph which they are and when they will sail. GIDEON WELLES, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Washington, D. C., March 17, 1862. (Sent 2.45 p. m.) Major-General MCCLELLAN, Commanding Army of Potomac, Alexandria Seminary: He At In connection with General Barnard I have had a long conference with the Assistant Secretary, Fox, as to naval co-operation. promises all the power of the Department shall be at our disposal. ny suggestion he has told Commodore Goldsborough to confer with Colonel Woodbury concerning the plans now in view. I have also asked Mr. Fox to detail an officer to have charge of our transports, so that the landing may be effected with as little confusion as possible. A person just from Hampton Roads reports nothing new. The Merrimac expected out, and waited for with a confident feeling of ability to suppress her. Mr. Fox agrees with me that [it] is most probable she will make her next sortie in all of this week and will be neutralized. Will Heintzelman's advance division get off this afternoon? IRVIN MCDOWELL, Major-General, Commanding First Corps. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Washington, D. C., March 17, 1862-3 p. m. (Sent 3.15 p. m.) Maj. Gen. GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN, Commanding Army of Potomac, Seminary: In view of all the First Corps going together toward the last of the week and of its requiring all the means of water transport that will be coming here, and that the embarkation of the First Corps, with the troops accompanying it, will most effectually organize the water transports and get from him all that was proposed, I beg to ask that Colonel Ingalls be assigned as the chief quartermaster to the First Corps. 1 want to have him and my chief of staff and the naval officer in conference, to arrange as to the transports and the disembarkation of the troops. Can an inspector-general and a commissary be also now assigned? It will further matters if they are. I learn from Mr. Fox that there is a battery where you supposed one would be found. Colonel Cram told Mr. Fox that he thought it probable we would find Back Bay fortified. Nothing they have there will stand against our guns afloat. IRVIN MCDOWELL, Major-General, Commanding First Corps. Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: ALEXANDRIA, VA., March 17, 1862. The embarking of Hamilton's division is progressing, but will not be completed until after dark. There was a want of system throughout, probably indispensable from a first attempt. I will give my personal attention to matters to-night, and think that hereafter everything will go on very well. Even to-day there was very little confusion. The troops are in splendid spirits and delighted with the move. GEO. B. MCCLELLAN. Hon. E. M. STANTON, HEADQUARTERS SEMINARY, VA., March 17, 1862. (Received 8.5 p. m.) No further news from horse transports. I hope to perfect arrange ments in the morning to facilitate embarkation of men and material. Personal supervision will be absolutely necessary until a more perfect system is introduced. The experience of to-day will enable us to push things hereafter. GEO. B. MCCLELLAN, Major-General. WASHINGTON, March 17, 1862. (Sent 9.25 a. m.) General E. V. SUMNER, Commanding Army Corps, Fairfax Court-House, Va.: Your dispatch* of 10.50 last evening received. The general commanding fully approves the dispositions you have made of Richardson's division, and he desires you to exercise your discretion in regard to advancing Blenker's division more to the front. If this is done it should be as near the railroad as practicable, in order See Series I, Vol. V, p. 762. that it may be supplied easily. The general thinks that if the enemy make their appearance near our front, and are not in large force, they should be driven back. R. B. MARCY, Chief of Staff. ALEXANDRIA, March 17. (Received 5.30 p. m.) General R. B. MARCY: Learn from General Banks where his own division now is and when it will reach Centreville. See Barnard about the Russian Captain Wattler as engineer for Banks. Prime might also assist in defensive work for Manassas. How many guns and of what caliber can Fox bring to our assistance? The chief quartermaster should be assigned to army corps with least possible delay. Consult with Kingsbury as to giving an ordnance officer, with mechanics' tools and supply train, to each army corps, he himself merely to take the general direction of them all, without being eucumbered himself either by men or material. Inform me what he thinks of this. Does Banks understand that Shields is to hold with his whole force the valley of the Shenandoah, at least to Strasburg, until Manassas Gap Railway is completed and in operation? GEO. B. MCCLELLAN. WASHINGTON, March 17, 1862-6.30 p. m. General GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN, Alexandria, Va.: I gave General Banks his instructions this morning, and he has left to hurry off his division to Centreville. He was directed to leave one brigade of Shields' division in the valley of the Shenandoah, but I will order him to retain the entire division until the Manassas Gap Railroad is completed. He did not know when his division would get off, but he will hurry it, and says they will be three days en route. He has to take a part of his wagons from Sedgwick, at Harper's Ferry, and I should not think he would get his division to Centreville in less time than six days. I will at once give him specific instructions to have Shields guard the valley of the Shenandoah till the Manassas Gap Railroad is finished. I have sent for General Barnard and Colonel Kingsbury, and will attend to your other instructions as soon as I can see them. I have telegraphed General Banks to know at what time his division will reach Centreville. I have just learned that General Van Vliet and Colonel Kingsbury have both gone to Alexandria. R. B. MARCY, CIRCULAR.] HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, The First, Second, Third, and Fourth Army Corps will at once be concentrated on their divisions nearest Alexandria, and the commanders of these army corps will at once establish their headquarters with their troops. The Headquarters of the Army of the Potomac being in the field, no general officer will leave his command without permission from these headquarters. The perfection of the new organization renders it, necessary to conform to this order without delay. GEO. B. MCCLELLAN, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Brig. Gen. E. V. SUMNER: Until further orders suspend execution of telegraphic order sent herewith in regard to concentration of army corps near Alexandria. Your two divisions now with you will remain under previous orders for the present, but will promptly be relieved. Sedgwick's division will proceed to this vicinity under orders from these headquarters. Communicate fully and frequently. (Copy to Secretary of War.) GEO. B. MCCLELLAN, Maj. Gen. JOHN E. WOOL, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 17, 1862. Commanding Department, Fort Monroe, Va.: GENERAL: I am instructed by General McClellan, commanding the Department of the Potomac, to inform you that General Hamilton's division of the Army of the Potomac will sail for Fort Monroe, where it will await further orders from General McClellan. General Hamilton has been directed, in the event of your requiring the services of his division for repelling an attack, to obey all orders coming from you and to use his utmost efforts to carry out your views. General McClellan telegraphed to you yesterday informing you that General Hamilton's division would sail to-day. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MARCY, Chief of Staff. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA, Major-General MCCLELLAN, Washington, D. C. : To the instructions of the Secretary of War of the 16th, by telegram, just received, 10 o'clock a. m., I reply that I have already communicated to him and yourself "all the information I have regarding the strength and disposition of the enemy's forces between Yorktown and James River." I repeat, about ten days ago I received what was considered reliable information that Magruder had between Gloucester (opposite to Yorktown) and James River from 15,000 to 18,000 men, and at Nor folk and the surrounding country about 18,000. Within the last two days there have been movements the design of which I have not been able to penetrate. Day before yesterday it was reported that they broke up a ten-gun battery on Poquosin and Cheeseman's Creeks. I have sent out reconnoitering parties to ascertain if possible what the enemy is doing or intends to do. JOHN E. WOOL, Major-General. SPECIAL ORDERS, Near Alexandria Seminary, Va., March 17, 1862. HDQRS. ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, No. 83. III. Col. Dixon S. Miles, Second Infantry, commanding Railway Brigade, will report his command to Maj. Gen. John A. Dix, commanding at Baltimore, but may receive his instructions with regard to that portion of the railway lying within the geographical limits of the Dis trict of Columbia from Brig. Gen. James S. Wadsworth, military gov. eruor of that District. By command of Major-General McClellan : R. B. IRWIN, Captain, Aide-de-Camp, Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen. SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 83. HDQRS. ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Near Alexandria Seminary, March 17, 1862. Supplementary. Brig. Gen. J. S. Wadsworth having been assigned to duty, by the direction of the President, as military governor of the District of Columbia, will, besides the military command of the city of Washington, assume the charge of the defenses north and south of the Potomac in the vicinity of Washington. The limits of his command will embrace the District of Columbia, the city of Alexandria, the ground in front of and in the vicinity of the defensive works south of the Potomac from the Occoquan to Difficult Creek, and the post of Fort Washington. He will have charge of the provisional brigades, composed of new troops arriving in Washington, and will exercise supervision over the troops in the city. By command of Major-General McClellan : S. WILLIAMS, Assistant Adjutant-General. WASHINGTON, D. C., March 18, 1862-9.40 a. m. Maj. Gen. JoHN E. WOOL, Fort Monroe: Ordered that, in recognition of faithful service by a distinguished and gallant officer, the name of the fort on the ripraps be changed from Fort Calhoun to Fort Wool, by which name it shall hereafter be known and designated. EDWIN M. STANTON, |
