[CHAP. XVII.

So far as relates to commissary stores any reports of that character are entirely untrue; every application for stores, informal or otherwise, having been at once complied with, and the stores unissued having been keep on board the steamboats instead of being immediately landed for wise and good reasons, and under the orders of General Crittenden.

Respectfully submitted.

GILES M. HILLYER,

Major, and A. C. s., General Crittenden's Division.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT Numbers 1,
New Orleans, February 12, 1862.

General A. SIDNEY JOHNSTON:

DEAR SIR: I received your dispatch indicating your desire that I should send one regiment to Iuka and four to Memphis. Unless there are some controlling reasons to the contrary, I would beg leave to suggest that the whole brigade be sent ot Coringth, Miss., as at that point it would be available for any emergency likely to arise. Mobile, New Orleans, Bowling Green, Columbus, and, more remotely, Memphis, are at this moment objective points in the enemy's plan of offensive operations. The first four are all directly threatened at this moment, and each can be re-enforced from Corinth by rail in about the same time. I can illy afford to spare these troops at this particular juncture, not only on my own account, but because I expected to lend a hand to General Bragg at Mobile, whose danger I consider to be more imminent than my own. The necessities of the case, however, seem to require that these troops should be sent from here, and I therefore put them in motion, simply suggesting that, if you do not require them for immediate active operations, you place them in some central position where they may be available for the greatest number of purposes. Corinth is, in my judgment, an important strategical point, as it is not only connected by rail with all the paces above indicated, but is only a day's march from the Tennessee River. This latter fact, taken in connection with the enemy's command of the water, would, however, suggest that the troops there should form an entrenched camp to prevent disaster from a sudden dash.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

M. LOVELL,

Major-General, Commanding.

[FEBRUARY 12, 1862.-For Lovell to Benjamin, in reference to reinforcements for Columbus, Ky., see Series I, Vol. VI, p. 825.]

NASHVILLE, February 13, 1862.

J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of War:

The following telegram from General Floyd contains the latest information from Fort Donelson:

FEBRUARY 13.

The day is closed, and we have maintained ourselves fully by land and water. The cannonade at one time was quite sharp. The attack on our trenches was not very