SELMA, ALA., May 2, 1864.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector-General, Richmond:

GENERAL: I commenced the inspection of the department commanded by Lieutenant-General Polk some weeks since, and have the honor to lay before you the following partial report until such time as I can make a more full and complete report of the condition of the western portion of the department, which will require yet several weeks of travel and examination.

In order properly to understand the location of the troops and the progress of administration throughout the territory embraced in this command it is necessary briefly to recapitulate the history of events, in all probability already fully explained to the War Department, but a statement of which here will save the necessity of tedious reference. From official information placed before me by the lieutenant-general commanding it appears that when he assumed command of this department he commenced with the unusual difficulties of a staff new to the locality, and as unacquainted as himself with the details of service in the territory. Before he could familiarize himself with the novelties of his position he received, about the latter part of January, from General Joseph E. Johnston a dispatch, informing him that there was every reason to believe the enemy were preparing a raid against the coal and iron fields of Alabama; at the same time the indications were almost conclusive that they were preparing to advance from Vicksburg and Yazoo City on the west, from the direction of Memphis on the northwest, from Huntsville on the north, and from Pascagoula on the southwest. Information of these threatening combinations was telegraphed, and assistance asked from General Johnston, from General Beauregard, and from the Governor of Alabama, asking the aid of the contingent force of that State, but from all the response was the same, they could render no assistance. The lieutenant-general thus found himself compelled to rely upon the forces of the department, consisting of Loring's DIVISION and French's fractional DIVISION of infantry, numbering 7,250 men, the cavalry under Major-General Lee, and a newly recruited force of cavalry under Major-General Forrest, then returning from WEST Tennessee, for the defense of the whole western line, and also in all probability to aid in the defense of Mobile, threatened with a combined land and naval attack. To add to his embarrassment he found many thousands of deserters, and absentees from the army banded together throughout MISSISSIPPI perpetrating outrages, and in the country of Jones and its vicinity a formidable organization of disaffected persons, threatening upon the appearance of the enemy to cut the line of railroad from Meridian to Mobile. The cavalry of Lee was thrown forward in front of Vicksburg in observation and the infantry concentrated in the vicinity of Canton and Jackson.

On the 6th of February information was received from General Lee that the enemy had debouched in force from Vicksburg and Yazoo City, and with light wagon trains were rapidly moving east, evidently expecting to rely upon the country for subsistence; that they had already moved through Jackson. Deeming the force under his control too small to venture delivering battle with, orders, were sent instructing the infantry under Major-General Loring slowly to retire in the direction of Meridian, availing itself of every favorable position to check the enemy, while the cavalry was ordered to hover on his flanks, drive in his foraging parties, and force him to rely upon his supplies in wagon. So successful was this plan that from the commencement of his march