be advisable to order me to take command of the reserves in East Louisiana to obviate any technical difficulties? If the general thinks so, please send authority by telegram.

Respectfully,

GEORGE B. HODGE,

Brigadier General, Commanding Dist., of E. La. and S. W. Miss.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 205.
Richmond, Va., august 30, 1864.

* * * * * *

XXII. No instructions having been given by this Department, and some doubt existing as to the nature of the authority for the recent expedition of Brigadier General J. H. Morgan into Kentucky, and grave representations from different sources having been received concerning its events, and of excesses and irregularities, amounting in many instances to depredations and spoliation, alleged to have been committed by that command, not merely through the license of the soldierly, which of itself would have been discreditable to the command, but with the tolerance, if not officers of different grades of authority therein, all of which reflects reproach and disgrace upon the character of our service and demands investigation and correction, it is ordered that Brigadier General J. H. Morgan be suspended from command and a court of inquiry, to consist of Major General Robert Ransom, Colonel R. H. Chilton, assistant adjutant and inspector general, and Colonel M. H. Cofer, Sixth Kentucky Volunteers, with Colonel William H. Payne, Fourth Virginia Cavalry, as recorder, be at once constituted and convened, to meet at Abingdon, in Southwestern Virginia, on the 10th day of September next, or as soon thereafter as practicable, to make inquiry and report, with the evidence, their opinion on the merits of the case, as to the source and extent of the authority upon which said expedition was undertaken, the organization and strength of the command at starting, and the number brought back, distinguished the number of those recruited and those who started with the command, as likewise in regard to the general conduct of the expedition and the events marking it; also, especially, whether the same was attended with undue license, and marked by robberies, depredations, or unwarrantable injuries to the people or corporations of that State; whether and to what extent such outrages were tolerated by or participated in by the officers of the comany kind seized by military authority or undue license have been turned over or accounted for to the proper officers, or have been appropriated or wasted.

By command of the Secretary of War:

JNO WITHERS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

ATLANTA, August 30, 1864.

General BRAXTON BRAGG:

General Maury telegraphs following dispatch from Forrest:

GRENADA, August 20 [30], 1864.

Enemy left Holly Springs at 2 a. m. yesterday, marching rapidly in direction of Memphis and La Grange. They say they are ordered to re-enforce Sherman.

JNO B. HOOD,

General.