HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE, Before Vicksburg, April 13, 1863.

Colonel J. C. KELTON,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Washington, D. C.:

COLONEL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of a communication of Major General Lewis Wallace to Major-General Halleck, of date March 14, 1863, relative to his failure to participate in the first day's fight at Pittsburg Landing, and submitted to me for my remarks.

Instead of making a detailed report myself in answer to said communication I called upon Major General J. B. McPherson, Lieutenant Colonel John A. rawlins, and Major W. R. Rowley, all of whom were members of my staff at that time and were cognizant of the facts, for their statements in reference to the same, and these I herewith respectfully transmit.

All these reports are substantially as I remember the facts. I vouch for their almost entire accuracy; and from these several statements, separate and independent of each other, too, a more correct judgment can be derived than from a single report.

Had General Wallace been relieved from duty in the morning, and the same orders communicated to Brig. General Morgan L. Smith (who would have been his successor), I do not doubt but the division would have been on the field of battle and in the engagement before 10 o'clock of that eventful 6th of April. There is no estimating the difference this might have made in our casualties.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

U. S. GRANT,

Major-General, Volunteers.

[Inclosure No. 1.]

GALENA, April 4, 1863.

Colonel JOHN A. RAWLINS,

Assistant Adjutant-General;

COLONEL: Yours requesting a statement as to my knowledge of the part taken by General Lewis Wallace in the first day's fight at the battle of Shiloh, on the 6th of April, 1862, is just received.

In reply, I would state that at that time I was an aide-de-camp on the staff General U. S. Grant, with the rank of captain, and on the morning of the 6th of April i accompanied the general, together with the other members of his staff, from Savannah to Pittsburg Landing. When the steamer upon which we were embarked arrived near to Crump's Landing General Grant directed that it should be run close in to the shore, as he wished to communicate with General Wallace, who was standing upon the commissary boat lying at that place. General Grant called to General Wallace, saying, " General, you will get your troops under arms immediately, and have them ready to move at a moment's notice." General Wallace replied that it should be done, adding (I think) that the necessary orders had already been given. This was between the hours of and 8 o'clock a. m. We passed on up the river, meeting the steamer Warner, which had been sent by General W. H. L. Wallace (as I understood) with a messenger to inform General Grant that a battle had been commenced. The Warner rounded to and followed us back to Pittsburg Landing.

Upon reaching the Landing General Grant immediately mounted his horse and rode the bank, and after conversing a moment with