| From the Richmond Dispatch |
| |
| March 2, 1864 |
| |
| Quartermaster Gen'ls Department, railroad bureau,
Richmond, Feb. 20, 1864 |
| The friends and relatives of soldiers in
the Army of Northern Virginia are hereby notified that an arrangement
has this day been effected with the Southern Express Company to carry
all packages of food and wearing apparel to Richmond, Va. |
| To secure the advantages thus obtained
through the Express Company, the following instructions must be
observed: |
| Packages must not contain more than one
hundred pounds; be well secured and plainly marked, and sent at the
expense of the shipper to either of the Soldiers' Relief Associations,
which are located as follows: |
| In North Carolina, at Raleigh; in South
Carolina, at Columbia; in Georgia, at Augusta; in Alabama at
Montgomery; or to any other point at which one of these Associations
have an office. |
| The Agents of these Associations will
there take charge of them and ship daily by Southern Express Company
to the proper Agents of the respective States at Richmond, who will
see them distributed to the proper individual owners. |
| To meet the wishes of the soldiers, and to
give them a certain and speedy communication with home, the Southern
Express Company has agreed to give this freight preference over
everything else; and, in order that no obstacle may occur to the
success of so laudable an enterprise, the several railroad companies
are hereby requested to render the Express Company such facilities as
will enable it to make this arrangement a complete success. |
| As the Southern Express Company assumes
all responsibility of the transportation of these packages, the Relief
Associations are requested to withdraw their Agents who have
heretofore acted as traveling messengers. If the Relief Associations
will establish agencies in the rear of other armies, they may enjoy
the same privileges hereby secured to the Army of Northern Virginia. |
| F W Sims, |
| Lieut.-Col. and Quartermaster |
| |
| Approved |
| A R Lawton, |
| Quartermaster General |