SPECIAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS OF THE SOUTH, HEADQUARTERS IN THE
FIELD, Numbers 613.
Folly Island, S. C., November 19, 1863.

* * * * * *

II. Captain Loomis L. Langdon, First U. S. Artillery, will proceed with his battery to Hilton Head and report to the commanding officer at that post. The quartermaster's department will furnish transportation.

By command of Major General Q. A. Gillmore:

W. L. M. BURGER,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

[28.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, HEADQUARTERS IN THE
FIELD, Numbers 621.
Folly island, S. C., November 27, 1863.

I. Lieutenant Peter S. Michie, Corps of Engineers, will establish himself on Morris Island and take charge of the engineering operations there, under instructions from these headquarters. He will keep the commanding officers of that post informed as to the condition of the work and the nature of the operations going on.

* * * * * *

By command of Major General Q. A. Gillmore:

ISRAEL R. SEALY,
Captain, Forty-seventh New York Vols., Actg. Asst. Adjt. General

[28.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, HEADQUARTERS IN THE
FIELD, Numbers 658.
Folly Island, S. C., December 18, 1863.

* * * * * *

II. Colonel J. C. Abbott, Seventh New Hampshire Volunteers, will proceed with his regiment to Saint Helena Island and report to Colonel J. R. Hawley, Seventh Connecticut Volunteers.

* * * * * *

By command of Major General Q. A. Gillmore:

ED. W. SMITH,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[28.]

CONFIDENTIAL.] HILTON HEAD, S. C., January 12, 1864.

Honorable IRA HARRIS,

Senator from New York, Washington, D. C.:

MY DEAR SIR: I take the liberty of writing to you again upon the subject upon which I have previously written, because I conceive it to be of such momentous import, nationally, that it is worthy of the strongest and fullest consideration. Meade and Grant are now idle, and idle they must be for many months. All efforts against Charleston are now virtually abandoned. Savannah will not be attacked. A trifling expedition to reclaim Florida may be undertaken, but it will be trifling because Florida will fall of itself when Johnston is beaten and destroyed, and meanwhile all efforts shoudl be concentrated to accomplish that desirable end. But this movement I have described is of only less consequence than was the opening of the Mississippi; it