Series 3, vol 4, Part 1 (Union Letters, Orders, Reports)Page�16-17
HDQRS. LEFT WING, SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Pulaski, Tenn., January 9, 1864.
Hon. E. M. STANTON,
Secretary of War:
I respectfully request authority to raise one or more regiments of cavalry from Alabamians. There are large numbers coming to our lines, and a better class of men than has ever come through before, being men who have furnished substitutes upon being drafted for the rebel service. Several of them are anxious to raids a regiment, and I have no bout [it can] easily be done. I recruited one regiment at Corinth, Miss. - the First Alabama Cavalry, nearly 1,000 strong - and that fact being well known in North Alabama nearly all the refugees from there seek my lines.
I also desires that authority be given me to appoint the officers, most of which I should select from the old regiments now in the service.
My advance is opposite Decatur and at points on the river easily reached from the Alabama mountains, from which these men seek our lines. We have to feed them, and it is no more than right that they should enter the service. Most of them are anxious to do so, but prefer to go into an organization of their own.
An early response to this would be of great benefit to the service.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
G. M. DODGE,
Brigadier-General.