| Augusta, Ga. |
| February 4, 1865 |
| |
| Maj. Norman W. Smith |
| Inspector Field Transportation |
| |
| Major, |
| A military necessity having
arisen for the impressment of wagons and teams to run between
Washington, Ga., and Abbeville, S. C., General Beauregard authorizes
and directs you to proceed without delay to impress 120 wagons and
480 mules in the following counties in the State of Georgia: Elbert
County, 20 wagons, 80 mules; Oglethorpe County, 20 wagons, 80 mules;
Clarke County, 20 wagons, 80 mules; Greene County, 20 wagons, 80
mules; Wilkes County, 30 wagons, 120 mules; Taliaferro County, 10
wagons, 40 mules. As this mode of proceeding is at all times harsh
and calculated to irritate and annoy, you will select for this duty
your best officers and instruct them to proceed with all possible
delicacy and abstain from all conduct which may needlessly vex and
alienate the affection of the citizens. As soon as the exigency
shall cease for the use of the wagons and teams: you will cause them
to be promptly returned to their owners. As you are without funds
and cannot proceed strictly according to the impressment law and the
orders regulating the exercise of powers under it, you will proceed,
in the mode indicated by the law, to ascertain the value of the
property impressed, and will then give a certificate to the owner,
setting forth the time and place, when and where taken, the
character and description of the property and the amount of
compensation fixed. As far as practicable in the discharge of this
duty you will conform to the orders regulating impressments. A
report of your action under this order you will make to these
headquarters when the duty shall have been performed. Colonel
Anderson, with his cavalry command, will be ordered to you to act
under your instructions.
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| respectfully, your obedient servant,
|
| George Wm. Brent
|
| Colonel and Assistant Adjutant General
|
| {This impressment
of wagons and teams was to connect the Georgia RR at Washington to
the Greenville & Columbia RR at Abbeyville. This would put the
Army of Tennessee troops back into the railroad system, despite
Sherman's move to break the South Carolina RR at Branchville.}
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