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Letter from Colonel John S. Ford
to Capt. James A. Ware

Transcribed by Judy C. Ware 2017




Original Letter

Headquarters Expeditionary Forces    San Antonio                         January 29, 1864

Captain:

The receipt of your report and some of the requisitions mentioned is acknowledged.  I have made arrangements to forward ammunition in accordance with Sergeant Wrather’s report of the orders in your command.  Twelve thousand rations of flour will leave for your command tomorrow.

Captain Shive has been assigned to duty as A.C.S. and A. A. Gen. and furnished funds.  He is on the Guadalupe and anticipates having a supply of cornmeal at Helena within ten days.  He will, within a few days, thereafter, be on the Nueces.  He has orders to establish depots in that section.  The Sagasta will the first point of deposit beyond the Nueces.  The next will be on the Bluios or at Agua Paquita.  You will aid him in every possible way you can.

I wish the men of Captain Maltby’s company for Christmas’ battery.  You will endeavor to procure as many men for artillery service as you can.  They can be detached from their companies and not permanently transferred unless by consent of parties. The wagons and teams on the line of the Nueces and adjacent thereto must be second for our use. 

It is said there is a considerable quantity of cotton secreted in various places on the Nueces and on this side.  You will take possession of all government cotton you may find secreted and (when moving) found under circumstances justifying a reasonable belief that the carrier or person in charge of the same intends to sell it and defraud the government - you will seize it and then transfer at once.  Cotton belonging to citizens and  -- in a situation rendering it liable to be captured by the enemy or moving in such direction or under such circumstances as to give grounds to suspicion that there is an intention to sell to the Yankees must be seized, receipted for, and held subject to the orders of the major general commanding.  Cotton coming into your possession under the above circumstances should be stored at safe points.

You will prevent the - - of stock.  Men who have been exempted on account of owning property of this kind must not be allowed to defeat the object of their exemption by placing their stock beyond the reach of the government, and distorting its’ policy to subscribe personal  - -.  The exemptions were to ensure to the benefit of the government and not individuals.

I would enforce upon you the propriety of looking well to persons coming into and going out of the country.  Suspicious characters must not be suffered to pass freely.  Corporal Mather will accompany the flour train. 

Very respectfully your obedient servant,

John S. Ford    Colonel Commanding

To:  Captain J. A. Ware    Commanding Forces on the Nueces

San Patricio, Texas


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