Raleigh. I want you to be all ready to move early on Monday straight on Smithfield and Raleigh by the most direct road. General Schofield will support you with the Twenty-third Corps, following you, and the Tenth and cavalry will move from Mount Olive and Faison's by Bentonville and Turner's Bridge; the Right Wing by Pikeville and Whitley's Mill, with a division around by Nahunta and Folk's Bridge. If the enemy declines to fight this side the Neuse I will, of course, throw the Right Wing up to Hinton's Bridge.

Yours,

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, April 7, 1865.

Major General FRANK P. BLAIR, Jr.,

Goldsborough, N. C.:

Your proposition for organizing, arming, and officering the provisional regiment of colored troops mentioned in your letter of March 28, received to-day, is approved. The regiment will remain attached to your corps, as recommended by General Sherman. Provisional certificates of appointment may be given to the officers by General Sherman, and commissions will be forwarded when the chief of the bureau, now absent, shall return.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE,
Goldsborough, N. C., April 7, 1865.

Major General F. P BLAIR,

Commanding Seventeenth Army Corps:

GENERAL: I have the honor to inclose to you a copy of a letter from the general-in-chief to the major-general commanding, with reference to the movement of this army on Monday next. * You will please make every preparation possible for the movement as indicated in General Sherman's letter, and be ready to move at the time specified. The ordnance and supply trains will be loaded as though we were to move in compliance with Special Field Orders, Numbers 48, from headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi, Goldsborough, April 5. The major-general commanding will be at home to-morrow, and further orders will be issued.

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

W. E. STRONG,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Chief of Staff.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, Goldsborough, N. C., April 7, 1865.

Major-General KILPATRICK,

Commanding Cavalry, Mount Olive:

GENERAL: We will move straight on Raleigh on Monday next. General Terry's infantry will move from Faison's to Bentonville and Tur-

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*See Sherman to Howard, p. 119.

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