prisoners, which have been sent to the Provost-Marshal-General, and with this report I will send some 40 or 50 picked up in the course of the past two days. Indeed, I think, if disarmed very many of these prisoners would never give trouble again, whilst, on the other hand, the real secessionists seem more bitter now than ever.

I will send the reports of brigadiers and colonels as soon as completed and handed in.

Inclosed is a sketch* made by Captain Kossak, without which, I fear, my description and history of movements would not be understood.

I am, with much respect, your obedient servant,

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding Division.

Capt. GEORGE E. FLYNT,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. FIFTH DIVISION ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE, Camp at Chewalla, June 10, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to report that on the 2nd instant, about 2 p.m. in camp before Corinth, I received General Halleck's orders, "Your will immediately move with your divisions and that of General Hurlbut through Corinth, and dislodge the enemy from their position near the Memphis and Charleston Railroad." On inquiry by telegraph of the major-general commanding, I learned the enemy in question was supposed to be at or near Smith's bridge, across the Tuscumbia Creek, 7 mils southwest Corinth. The division was immediately put in motion, followed by that of Brigadier-General Hurlbut. We marched into and through Corinth in a violent rain-storm, and took the road toward the west. The rain made the road so heavy that we only made 4 miles, when darkness overtook us, and we lay in mud and rain that night by the road-side;but I directed Colonel Dickey, of the Fourth Illinois Cavalry, to proceed 3 miles farther on the road, and to send out a party to Smith's Bridge to ascertain the position of the enemy, his strength,&c.

At daybreak of the 3rd I put the column in motion, and, soon met Colonel Dickey, whose command had been down to Smith's Bridge, which had been burned and destroyed by the enemy. Satisfied that no enemy was there to dislodge, I then proceeded to carry out the second part of my instructions, viz: "Assist in getting up and repairing all the locomotives and cars you can find." Stationing General Hurlbut's division near Young's Station, on the Memphis and Charleston road, which covered the approach from Smith's Bridge, I then conducted my own divisions to the high ridge back of Chewalla, and there bivouacked. Large working parties were at once sent forward on the railroad about 3 miles west of Chewalla, where the enemy had prematurely burned the bridge over Cypress Creek, thereby preventing the escape of 7 locomotives and trains of cars filled with their own stores. They had destroyed all, or nearly all, this property by fire, and the burned mass of wreck encumbered the railway track for a mile. We set to work forthwith to clear the track, repair the locomotives, and the few platform cars which had not been utterly ruined, with the vast amount

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*Not found.

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