Stalled Transfer

Taken from the March 8, 1862, edition of the Atlanta Southern Confederacy:

Letter from “Nestor.”

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LYNCHBURG, Va., Feb 25, 1862.

Dear Confederacy:

I informed you in my letter of the 16th inst. respecting the division made by the War Department of Gen. Loring’s late command, and also the different departments to which the several brigades had been transferred. For want of transportation the regiments ordered to report to Gen. A. Sidney Johnston, at Knoxville, Tennessee, were detained several days at camp Mason after the reception of the order from the Adjutant General. We left the vicinity of Winchester on the 20th inst., but in consequence of the great difficulty of procuring transportation on the Manassas Gap and the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, we did not get to this city till Monday morning, 24th instant. Upon our arrival here we found that we could not prosecute our journey further by this route until some damages on the Tennessee & Virginia Railroad, caused by the recent very heavy rains in this section, could be repaired. I am informed that there are not less than seventeen land slides on that road between Dublin and Bristol. Besides these slides several culverts have been greatly impaired, and the trestle work in many places materially damaged. I learn there are seven or eight hundred hands now at work repairing this road, but it will take them some time—at least five or six days—to get it in a condition for trains to pass over it.

Thus, you perceive, the most direct and main line of communication and transportation between this State and the West is entirely cut off for awhile. This Providential occurrence is working materially against us. The tide of battle at the present is against us in that section. Our brave soldiers have had to contend, and are now contending, against desperate odds in Tennessee. The War Department, fully advised of the fact, has ordered all the troops that could possibly be spared from Virginia to rush to the assistance of their brethren, and aid them in repelling the ruthless invaders from the Volunteer State, who have dared to pollute its soil with the touch of their feet. But many of these gallant troops who are most eager to enter the contest, and to aid in changing the tide of battle, are hindered for awhile in consequence of this line of transportation being cut off. I hope these obstacles will not long remain in our way.

We can learn nothing here satisfactory concerning the movements of our army in Tennessee—so conflicting are the reports. I am not willing to believe the reports respecting the extent of our loss at Fort Donelson. We hope to hear something definite and reliable from that quarter soon.

I learn there is great excitement at Manassas. A fight is expected to come off at Centerville daily.

Two piers of the bridge connecting the South Side Railroad depot with the Island in in James River, was burned last Tuesday evening. By the active efforts of the soldiers and citizens the three remaining piers were saved from the flames, despite the heavy gale then prevailing.

Capt. Houser, of company “C” has just arrived from Richmond, and brings the intelligence that our regiment will in a few days be ordered to Macon, Georgia, where it will be disbanded. Our present term of enlistment expires with the 18th of March. Notwithstanding the sufferings and hardships the First Georgia Regiment has endured the past twelve months, I dare say the major portion, if not all of its members, will re-enlist and enter the field again by the opening of the spring campaign, if it be disbanded now. Such Patriotic men as compose this regiment will not be slow to act in this hour of our country’s peace.

NESTOR.