| Headquarters |
| Chattanooga, Tenn., September 16, 1862 |
| |
| General Braxton Bragg |
| Commanding in the Field |
| |
| General, |
| Your letter of the 12th instant to me,
with the telegrams of the same date to General Price and
Breckinridge, and your telegram of the 6th to Colonel [Samuel] Tare,
superintendent Memphis and Charleston Railroad, were received a few
[days?] since. The telegrams have been dispatched, and the
instructions conveyed in your letter will be immediately carried
out. |
| Major-General McCown informed me by
letter of the 10th that Smith's Legion was on the way to co-operate
with General Stevenson in cutting off a party of the enemy about Big
Creek and Rogers' Gaps. I have informed General McCown by telegraph
of your instructions to me in regard to Smith's Legion, and have
some hope that the command under General Maxey will overtake it.
Maxey's command shall be immediately put in motion. The party
(1,400) of stragglers and convalescents under Captain Taylor is but
3 or 4 miles on the other side of the river. It will recross to-day
and go with the Forty-first Alabama Regiment (Colonel Talbird) by
railroad to Knoxville. I will send every musket, rifle, shot-gun,
and pistol that can be of any service by General Maxey. I regret
that I have so few to send. I have written and telegraphed the Chief
of Ordnance to send me arms? and represented the importance of
having them, but have received neither arms nor answers to my
communications. |
| The work of repairing the Nashville
& Chattanooga Railroad is going on rapidly. One or two trains
will be crossed over the river at Bridgeport to-day and a train will
go as far as Corinth to-morrow {on the Memphis
& Charleston RR}. The superintendent of the road, Mr.
Cole, who is active and zealous, thinks the cars may run to
Murfreesborough in the course of a week. I am informed that the road
from Stevenson to Huntsville {on the Memphis
& Charleston RR} was slightly damaged by the enemy. I am
sorry to say that the work of repairing telegraphic communications
to Murfreesborough has not been pushed forward as rapidly as I think
it might have been. Unfortunately, it seems that not only the
working of the telegraphic instrument but even the putting up of the
wire is a specialty, and that none but experts can accomplish it. I
will hurry the work. |
| ***** |
| Very respectfully, your obedient servant, |
| Sam. Jones |
| Major-General |
|