have been ordered to Cape Fear River. The last-named detachment will be nearly 3,000 strong. The Delaware will not go to Charleston to-night. The quartemraster's department will furnish transportation.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

T. D. HODGES,

Captain, Thirty-fifth U. S. Colored Troops, Actg. Asst. Adjt. General

HDQRS. NORTHERN DISTRICT, DEPT. OF THE SOUTH,
Charleston, S. C., March 1, 1865.

Major General Q. A. GILLMORE,

Commanding Department of the South:

GENERAL: I have the honor to inclose with this a copy of a telegram* received last night from General Potter. I have directed him to fall back from the Santee and scourt the country on both sides of the Cooper River, destroying the rice mills and such stocks of rice as can not be got to market. He will cause the cotton to be transported to the banks of the Cooper and Wando Rivers, where it can be reached by water transportation, and will collect all the horses and mules he can find for the use of the army. I shall send a force to Summerville to-morrow. The negroes are pillaging the country lately vacated by the rebel troops. I will endeavor to get them into our lines, as I see no other way of preventing it. The men will do for the army; the women General Saxton must try and employ.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN P. HATCH,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., March 1, 1865.

Brigadier-General HATCH,

Commanding Northern Dist., Dept. of the South, Charleston, S. C.:

GENERAL: I hear from all sides very discouraging accounts of the state of affairs in Charleston; that no restraint is put upon the soldiers; that they pilfer and rob houses at pleasure; that large quantities of valuable furniture, picturs, statuary, mirrors, &c., have mysteriously disappeared-no one knows whither or by what agency; and that matters generally are at sixes and sevens.

I deem it proper to mention these things to you, as they are fully reported by persons coming here from Charleston. If the reports be true, even partially, the most vigorous measures should be adopted by way of remedy. Any officer or soldier detected in any act of pillage or appropriation of property for private use or gain should be made an example of.

Mr. Pillsbury, Treasury agent, bears a letterto you in reference to capture or abandoned property, which I desire to have carried out in both letter and spirit. He should at once be put in possession of all captured or abandoned property (movable) not absolutely required for military purposes.

I desire to be furnished at your earliest convenience with a list of the families in Charleston having husbands, fathers, or brothers in the rebel army.

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*See Potter to Schimmelfenning, February 28, 8 a.m., p. 617.

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41 R R-VOL XLVII, PT II