Brevet Brigadier General L. C. Easton will place Lieutenant Colonel Ransom in charge of all the cotton in his possession. Lieutenant Colonel Ransom will immediately make a careful inspection of the stores containing the captured cotton, and will make requisition for guards sufficient to prevent all danger of unauthorized persons entering the storehouses or meddling in any manner with the cotton. No person not in the employment of the United States will be permitted to enter into or to loiter about the neighborhood of the buildings. He will afford every facility for the operations of the treasury agent, Simeon Draper, collector of the port of New York, who is charged by the Treasury Department with the care and disposition of this captured property. He will employ competent clerks to attend to the weighing of each bale, who will keep an accurate register of the number and weight of each bale, and will take duplicate receipts in detail from the special agent of the Treasury Department before allowing any of it to leave the harbor. He will forward one copy of these receipts to the Quartermaster General's office in Washington, by the first mail after their execution. The other copy and the books and papers containing the records of this business, he will himself carry in person to Washington and will deliver them to the Quartermaster General. For the cotton already stowed on board vessels he will take receipts in detail from the special agent, based upon the accounts and invoices of this property prepared by Captain Geo. B. Cadwallader, heretofore in charge of this duty. In default of such receipts he will order the vessels to proceed to New York, invoicing the cotton to Brevet Brigadier General Van Vliet, chief quartermaster, forwarding with the bills of lading an official copy of this order. General Van Vliet will transfer the cotton in this case to the special agent of the treasury in New York, upon receiving such receipts as are herein prescribed. Lieutenant Colonel Ransom will turn over to the special agent of the Treasury Department the workmen and machinery, cotton presses, baling and bagging, now in use. He will collect and register all the information offered to him of claims to the former ownership of this cotton. He will take this information with him to Washington, but will give copies or extracts from it to no one in Savannah, to no one but the Quartermaster General. The utmost vigilance will be exercised by Captain Ransom in the execution of the important trust committed to him. He will himself visit the guards and the presses, and the storehouses, continually. He will see that no fires are lighted near the storehouses or on the open streets or squares surrounding them. He will report to the officer commanding the guards all neglect or inattention on the part of the guard, and if this does not immediately produce a reform he will report the facts to the commanding officer of the post of Savannah. The wages of operatives and all indebtedness incurred in handling, packing, and shipping cotton to this date will be discharged by the special agent of the treasury. Lieutenaut Colonel Ransom will confer freely with the special agent of the Treasury Department, and will call for such military assistance as may be necessary to discover and place him in possession of all the cotton in the city of Savannah or within the lines occupied by its garrison. It is all prize of war. He will also aid him by the impressment, if necessary, of laborers to handle and ship the cotton with the greatest possible expedition. All vessels which have discharged supplies at this port will be laden with cotton on their return voyages. From the day and hour in which they are relieved of their cargoes they will be at the charge and expense of the Treasury Department. Vessels, the property of the United States or chartered for continuous service, will sail under such orders as may be requested by the treasury agent, and an account of the time at which they are placed on the duty of transporting cotton will be forwarded to the Quartermaster General, in order that the account may be collected from the Treasury Department which will be chargeable for the time thus employed. M. C. MEIGS, Quartermaster General, Brevet Major General. QUARTERMASTER GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, February 3, 1865. SIR: I have the honor to enclose copies of orders and instructions in reference to the cotton captured at Savannah, which will show fully the measures taken to carry out your instructions of the 12th January, 1865, directing the Quartermaster General to provide for its care and preservation, and to detail a competent officer for the special duty of seeing to its being turued over and receipted for by the agents of the quartermaster's department. Lieutenant Colonel H. C. Ransom, of the quartermaster's department, was detailed to this duty, and I enclose copies of the order assigning him to duty, and the instructions given to him. The memorandum of the 17th January was drawn up and presented to the agents of the Treasury Department in order to provide against any misunderstanding between the officers of the War and Treasury Departments as to the parts to be taken by each in managing the business. It was agreed to by them, and, at my request, Messrs. Draper, Browne, and Kauffman, the agents of the Treasury Department, united in signing it. Copies were left with Mr. Draper and with Lieutenant Colonel Ransom. I remained in Savannah until the 19th of January, at which time the work of weighing, transferring, and shipping the cotton was going on rapidly and successfully, and I proceeded to Port Royal, and took passage in the steamer Monterey for New York, and reached this city on the evening of the 28th January. An attempt was made on the evening of the 14th January to burn one warehouse containing about three hundred bales of cotton, but the soldiers and the fire brigade extinguished the flames before they had done much damage, two bales only being entirely destroyed, and nine more or less injured by fire and water. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. E. M. STANTON, M. C. MEIGS, Quartermaster General, Brevet Major General. Secretary of War. SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, February 4, 1865. GENERAL: There is at the different cotton presses and warehouses of this city quite a large lot of rope cuttings and old sacking, in bales and otherwise. Please give some instructions about it. Shall I ship all such material as directed in the case of cotton? There is also a pretty large amount of cotton yarn; what will be done with it? Please give me instructions. Speculators are, I believe, being permitted to buy it up on their own account. Respectfully, your obedient servant, General M. C. MEIGS, H. C. RANSOM, Lieutenant Colonel and Quartermaster. Quartermaster General United States Army. QUARTERMASTER GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, February 20, 1865. COLONEL Your letter of the 4th instant, asking instructions as to the disposition of rope cuttings, old sacking, and cotton yarn in Savannah, has been received. You will turn these articles over to the treasury agent, and take receipts therefor. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, M. C. MEIGS, Quartermaster General, Brevet Major General. Lieutenant Colonel II. C. RANSOM, Quartermaster, Savannah, Georgia. QUARTERMASTER GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, D. C., February 17, 1865. SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith abstracts of twenty receipts for cotton transferred by Lieutenant Colonel H. C. Ransom, quartermaster United States army, to Mr. Albert G. Browne, supervising special agent Treasury Department, giving the numbers of bales, total weight, names of vessels, and dates of each. The originals are in this office, subject to such disposition as the War Department may direct to be made of them. By order of the Quartermaster General : Very respectfully, your obedient servant, CHARLES THOMAS, Ass't Quartermaster General, Brevet Brig. Gen. U. S. Army. Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. Abstract of receipts for cotton transferred by Lieutenant Colonel H. C. Ransom, quartermaster United States army, to Albert G. Weight of bales. Names of vessels. Total weight. 625 Upland. 454, 040 pounds.. 978 bales. 351 Upland... 52, 523 pounds... Bark Savannah. 506, 563 pounds 353. Upland cotton. 223, 985 pounds.. Schooner J. T. Williams.. 1,360 pounds... Schooner J. T. Williams.. Schooner Mary Steedman. Steamer Rebecca Clyde. |