| Engineer Bureau |
| December 9th '62 |
| |
| General S. Cooper |
| Adjutant and Inspector General C. S. A. |
| |
| General, |
| I have just received a communication from George
G. Hull, Esq. Superintendent of the "Atlanta & West Point
R. Rd." Georgia. In which he states, "I am short of hands,
and that too just when the requisitions of the Government are more
urgent than ever before. My deficiency is in Engine runners. I
need not state how much greater is the necessity to have competent men
to manage such machines when every days use is making them, or rather,
bringing them nearer the point of actual disability, without the power
to get, within the limits of the C. States, the material necessary to
make repairs and keep them up to working point. There is one of my old
engine men, now in the 7th Georgia Regiment -- William Glen
-- who is fully posted as to my road and engines and grades
and schedules. His services are much needed and will much
assist us in keeping up the working capacity of the Road. I am pressed
every day to the extent by the demands of the Government for
transportation of public supplies and I dare not trust my machinery to
inexperienced hands. It is wearing out rapidly day by day, and
therefore it is the more important to the Government that this same
machinery should be "conserved" to the utmost. I cannot, at
this time, find competent men her to run my engines." |
| "The engine driver I want William
Glen, 7th Georgia Regiment, was in the first battle of Manassas
and has never been absent a single day from his Regiment since. He
does no know of my application for his services." |
| The Atlanta & West Point
R. Road is a part of the only line between Richmond and the
Mississippi Valley also between Chattanooga and the valley. It is
essential to R. Road communication between the different commands in
the Western Department. The good of the service requires that the man
should be detailed for the duty named, which I have respectfully to
request and ask that he be ordered to report to George G. Hull Esq.
at Atlanta, Georgia. |
| Very Respectfully |
| Your Obt. Servt. |
| J. F. Gilmer |
| Col. of Engrs. & Chf Engr. Bureau |
|