OR, Series 1, Vol. 51, Part 2, Page 376

Headquarters Department of North Carolina
Goldsborough, November 13, 1861
 
Brig. Gen. J. R. Anderson
Commanding Forces, &c., Wilmington, N. C.
 
General,
   The burning of the bridges on the Tennessee roads admonishes us of the necessity to be more careful in guarding our own. You will please detail from your command an officer, four non-commissioned officers, and forty privates, to act as a guard over the bridges of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad over the Northeast, the Neuse, at Halifax, and over the Roanoke. The officer will be instructed to have a non-commissioned officer and ten men at each of those bridges, whose duty it will be to see that no injury is done to them by evil-disposed persons. They will be provided with camp equipage and rations for eight days, and may be relieved weekly. They should be sent up on the evening train {on the Wilmington & Weldon RR} to-morrow, if practicable, as no time should be lost in placing the bridges in security.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
R. C. Gatlin
Brigadier-General, Commanding

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