infamous practices. No foraging or other parties will be permitted to leave camp, except in charge of a commissioned officer, who will be held responsible for the good conduct of the men under his charge.

To secure the observance of this order the regular daily company roll calls will be rigidly enforced and every man absent without permission will be reported through regimental and brigade commanders to division commanders, and will be placed in arrest by his regimental commander for punishment. No department staff officer will permit an enlisted men or employee in his department to leave camp without a pass countersigned by the brigade or division commander. All stragglers without written permits will be turned over to the provost-marshal for immediate punishment.

The brevet Major-general commanding the corps expects the hearty co-operation of all officers to put a stop to practices disgraceful to our arms and shocking to humanity.

This order will be communicated not only to the troops of the line, but all quartermasters, commissaries, ordnance, ambulance, and all other officers, and to all men under their charge, whether civilians or enlisted men, and they will be held responsible that not a man of their commands leaves camp without the permits of their respective military commanders.

By command of Brevet Major-General Williams:

H. W. PERKINS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, January 31, 1865.

COMMANDING OFFICER,

Coosawhatchie:

SIR: I send you four cipher dispatches* for General Slocum. Send one via Purysburg, another by some other route, and keep two, one of which to be sent back to him by the first courier who comes from him, and the last by another who may follow. Slocum should now be at Robertsville. His troops left Savannah on the 25th, and two divisions were then on this side, at Purysburg. I may move to-morrow for Hickory Hill Post-Office.

Yours,

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., January 31, 1865.

Major General W. T. SHERMAN,

Commanding, &c.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to inform you that I have just returned from Savannah, where I saw an officer just from Sister's Ferry and obtained from him the following report:

The bridge across the Savannah River at Sister's Ferry was completed on the night of the 30th and a few men crossed over it. A new approach had to be made, the old approach having been much washed by the water, and the causeway filled with torpedoes. On the north

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*See Sherman to Slocum, p. 184.

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