hand an army before which Hood has retreated precipitately down the valley of the Coosa. It is hard to divine his future plans, but by abandoning Georgia, and taking position with his rear to Selma, he threatens the road from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and may move to Tennessee by Decatur. He cannot cross the Tennessee except at Muscle Shoals, for all other points are patrolled by our gun-boats. I am now perfecting arrangements to put into Tennessee a force able to hold the line of the Tennessee whilst I break up the railroad in front of Dalton, including the city of Atlanta, and push into Georgia, and break up all its railroads and depots, capture its horses and negroes, make desolation everywhere, destroy the factories at Macon, Milledgeville, and Augusta, and bring up with 60,000 men on the seashore about Savannah or Charleston. I think this far better than defending a long line of railroad. I will leave General George H. Thomas to command all my DIVISION behind me, and take with me only the best fighting material. Of course I will subsist on the bountiful corn-fields and potato patches, as I am now doing luxuriously. I have now all your dispatches, and there will be time to give me any further instructions. Canby should be most active as against Selma from the direction of Mobile, and I will order similar movements from the MISSISSIPPI River and Decatur, provided Beauregard follows me, as he will be forced to do by public clamor.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

OCTOBER 22, 1864.

Colonel S. L. BROWN,

Quartermaster's Department, New York:

The orders in relation to shipment of supplies suspended by my telegraphic dispatch of 16th instant from City Point are renewed. Let the supplies as shipped be sent to Hilton Head to be stored there if there is storage, or until the store-houses are filled; the remainder to be held afloat for instant transfer to some other point when needed. I will add to the list by mail.

M. C. MEIGS,

Quartermaster-General, Brevet Major-General.

(Same to Major Stewart Van VLieut.)

SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS, HDQRS. MIL. DIV. OF THE MISS., Numbers 100.
In the Field, Gaylesville, Ala., October 22, 1864.

1. Application having been made by Major General O. O. Howard, commanding Department of the Tennessee, Major General George Stoneman is hereby temporarily assigned to command the Seventeenth Corps during the absence of General Blair, in order that DIVISION commanders may remain with their proper commands.

By order of Major General W. T. Sherman:

L. M. DAYTON,

Aide-de-Camp.

ALPINE, GA., October 22, 1864 - 9 a. m.

Lieutenant Colonel J. S. FULLERTON:

By direction of General Schofield, on arriving here yesterday, I halted here with one brigade, sending the other to General Grose to cross