GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. NORTHERN DEPARTMENT, Numbers 56.
Columbus, Ohio, August 29, 1864.

Colonel C. H. Hoyt, assistant quartermaster of volunteers, is hereby announced as chief quartermaster of this department. He will be obeyed and respected accordingly.

By command of Major-General Heintzelman:

C. H. POTTER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

MEMPHIS, August 29, 1864.

(Via Cairo 31st. Received September 4.)

Major-General SHERMAN:

In three days I hope to ship General Smith's DIVISION to Nashville, unless I have to go and help General F. Steele. A dispatch yesterday from General Andrews, at Devall's Bluff, indicates a good deal of alarm on his part. He has a very small force at Devall's, and General --- had captured the guards on the railroad and was smashing it up. He reports a pontoon near Arkansas Post, and that the enemy was about crossing there to capture Devall's Bluff and operate on Steele's rear. If this shall prove a real danger, I shall go to their rescue as soon as the troops arrived here. If there is nothing of it I intend within a few days to have a force of 5,000 cavalry in good shape for another move. Forrest is now so much crippled up that they can whip him, and, with your consent and General Howard's, I shall make another trial at him, subsisting on the country, and not stopping until reaching Montgomery, Ala., cutting up the railroad from Montgomery to Mobile, Selma, and Meridian, and crating as much as possible a diversion in your favor. The cavalry will be in good condition, and Hatch and Grierson will command it. What say you to it?

C. C. WASHBURN,

Major-General.

HDQRS. CAVALRY CORPS, DIST. OF WEST TENNESSEE,
Memphis, Tenn., August 29, 1864.

Brigadier-General HATCH,

La Grange:

Colonel Karge was ordered to march this morning for White's Station and Memphis. Will encamp at Collierville to-night. If he has not already left can be called upon to escort the train. Your DIVISION will be drawn in to Germantown in a few days. General Washburn has telegraphed you to send one regiment each to Moscow, La Fayette, and Collierville to relieve the troops at those points. This force might escort the train to Collierville.

B. H. GRIERSON,

Brigadier-General.

HDQRS. FIRST BRIGADE, FIRST DIVISION, 17TH CORPS,
Vicksburg, Miss., August 29, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel H. C. RODGERS,

Assistant Adjutant-General, District of Vicksburg:

COLONEL: I would respectfully report that on the 26th instant I received a communication, by authority of the major-general commanding.