| Headquarters Department of North Carolina |
| Goldsborough, November 13, 1861
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Brig. Gen. J. R. Anderson
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| Commanding Forces, &c., Wilmington, N. C. |
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| General, |
| The burning of the bridges on the Tennessee
roads admonishes us of the necessity to be more careful in guarding
our own. You will please detail from your command an officer, four
non-commissioned officers, and forty privates, to act as a guard
over the bridges of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad over the
Northeast, the Neuse, at Halifax, and over the Roanoke. The officer will be instructed to have a non-commissioned officer
and ten men at each of those bridges, whose duty it will be to see
that no injury is done to them by evil-disposed persons. They will
be provided with camp equipage and rations for eight days, and may
be relieved weekly. They should be sent up on the evening train {on
the Wilmington & Weldon RR} to-morrow, if practicable, as no time should be lost in placing the
bridges in security. |
| Very respectfully, your obedient servant, |
| R. C. Gatlin |
| Brigadier-General, Commanding |
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