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Agency War Dept
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Wilmington 30th Oct 1863 |
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Major T. L. Bayne |
| Ordnance Bureau |
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Richmond |
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| Major, |
| I desire to place on record the plain fact
that unless a supply of cotton is furnished me here, by regular trains,
I will be entirely unable either to provide cargos for the Government
steamers or furnish the proportion on private vessels or to make the
settlements in cotton on which parties owning ships place much
dependence and which are obligations, which are to the interest of the
Government to cancil(?). The return fleet of vessels should now be
carrying in including the Lee & Cornubia & the Dee & the Sirius, the two
latter belonging to the Collie Contract. My stock here and on the way is
about 1000 bales, not sufficient to load three of the four. |
| I stated to Maj. Sims when here, that my
present requirements were 1500 bales per week
{about 60 car loads} and I am under the impression that I should
have had this supply could be furnished and from what points it was to
be derived. If the report of cotton for Government account and the
importation of needful articles by private parties on favorable term and
of the advantages which my instructions infer, you must at once
recognize the necessity and the importance of furnishing this Agency the
facilities to accomplish the duty assigned it. Those facilities consist
in the control of such a number of Rail Road trains, running from
various point here, without breaking bulk as will ensure the
delivery at Wilmington of fifteen hundred bales per week, and which are
not to be diverted from this purpose, except by the order of the highest
military command in the Department. |
| I shall spare no effort to realize the
expectations of the Department, but it is proper that the facts be
submitted and my want of the necessary aid be known. |
| Very Respectfully Yr Obt. Sevt. |
| J. M. Seixas Agt War Dept |
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