Official Records of the Rebellion

[p.88]

It will be seen by the concluding paragraph of the foregoing dispatch that in order to have a more direct, speedy, and full explanation of the condition of affairs in the army than I could by sending a single dispatch by steamer to the nearest telegraph office at Jamestown Island, some 70 miles distant, and waiting ten hours for a reply, I proposed to go in person to the office. This I did. On my arrival at Jamestown Island there was an interruption in the electric current, which rendered it necessary for me to continue on to Fort Monroe and across the Chesapeake Bay to Cherrystone Inlet, on the Eastern Shore, where I arrived late in the evening, and immediately sent the annexed dispatches:

CHERRYSTONE, August 13, 1862—11.30 p. m.

Please come to office; wish to talk to you. What news from Pope?

GEO. B. McCLELLAN,
Major-General.

Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK, Washington.

CHERRYSTONE INLET, August 14, 1862—12.30 a. m.

Started to Jamestown Island to talk with you; found cable broken and came here. Please read my long telegram. (See above dispatch of August 12—1l p. m.) All quiet at camp. Enemy burned wharves at City Point yesterday. No rebel pickets within miles of Coggins’ Point yesterday. Richmond prisoners state that large force, with guns, left Richmond northward on Sunday.

GEO. B. McCLELLAN,
Major-General.

Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK, Washington.

[p.89]

To which the following reply was received:

WASHINGTON, August 14, 1862—1.40 a. m.

I have read your dispatch. There is no change of plans. You will send up your troops as rapidly as possible There is no difficulty in landing them. According to your own accounts, there is now no difficulty in withdrawing your forces. Do so with all possible rapidity.

H. W. HALLECK,
Major-General

Maj. Gen. GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN.

Before I had time to decipher and reply to this dispatch thetelegraph operator in Washington informed me that General Halleck had gone out of the office immediately after writing this dispatch, without leaving any intimation of the fact for me, or waiting for any further information as to the object of my journey across the bay. As there was no possibility of other communication with him at that time I sent the following dispatch, and returned to Harrison’s Landing:

CHERRYSTONE INLET, August 14, 1862—1.40 a. m.

Your orders will be obeyed. I return at once. I had hoped to have had a longer and fuller conversation with you after traveling so far for the purpose.

GEO. B. McCLELLAN,
Major- General.

Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK, Washington, D. C.