Headquarters
Valley District
| Winchester, Va., December 2, 1861 |
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| Maj. Thomas G. Rhett, |
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| Major, |
| The enemy are using the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad as far east as the Little Cacapon, and from official
information received last night they commenced working on the Little
Cacapon railroad bridge at 3 p.m. on Friday last, and will soon
complete the work, as they had all the building material on hand.
They are energetically pressing the railroad repairs eastward. With
but comparative little exception both tracks have been by our
Government taken up from the Furnace Hill, near Harper's Ferry, to
Martinsburg, and about 7½ miles of one of the tracks has also been
removed west of Martinsburg. One track is as yet preserved for the
purpose of hauling away the other to the vicinity of Martinsburg.
Captain Sharpe, assistant quartermaster, has repaired a locomotive
for the purpose of removing the track more rapidly, and today I
expect it to commence running, and Captain Sharpe expects to be able
with it to remove 1 mile per day of the single track. I have made a
detail of 50 men from the militia for the purpose of expediting the
work as rapidly as possible.
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| ***
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| Respectfully, your obedient servant,
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| T.
J. Jackson |
| Major-General, P. A. C. S., Commanding Valley
District |
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