NASHVILLE, TENN., October 24, 1864 -10. 30 p. m.

(Received 1,15 a. m. 25th.)

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

Chief of Staff:

Your dispatch of 2. 30 p. m. to-day just received. My last information from General Sherman, at Gaylesville, Ala., dated the 23d, 9 a. m., indicated some doubt of Hood's return to Blue Mountain. I have a number of efficient scouts on the south side of the Tennessee, who will report any movement of Hood in this direction. I learn from Croxton that the enemy's pickets are seen on the south side of the river, about Tuscumbia, but do not appear to be in great force. Have heard nothing from Corinth yet.

GEO. H. THOMAS,

Major-General.

HDQRS. CAVALRY CORPS, MIL. DIV. OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Gaylesville, Ala., October 24, 1864.

Brigadier General R. W. Johnson,

Nashville, Tenn.:

GENERAL: I inclose for your information copies of orders* relating to the reorganization of the cavalry of this DIVISION. You will please exert yourself to the utmost to remount, arm, and equip all the cavalry that can be made available for field service, and to send it under the command of competed officers to the front as rapidly as possible. You are authorized and directed to go wherever you may find it necessary and to do whatever you may think best to facilitate the policy of getting all the cavalry into the field, except such as shall be hereafter designated for service in Middle and East Tennessee. General Grierson has been directed to send Hatch's DIVISION at once to join the Cavalry Corps with this army, to put the balance of the cavalry force in WEST Tennessee, including all of Winslow's DIVISION, that can be obtained upon an efficient footing and hold it in readiness to move at such time and by such route as may be hereafter designated. All the cavalry of the Armies of the Cumberland and Ohio -except two brigades for Middle Tennessee (the Tennessee cavalry) and one regiment for East Tennessee -you will send forward as fast as prepared for active service, selecting the best regiment first. The new Indiana regiments, and such others as may not have been mounted and forwarded before the general movement of this army begins, you will assemble at Nashville, under the command of Generals Upton, Mackenzie (expected soon from the Army of the Potomac), and such other officers as hereafter become available, and direct to join the corps in the field by a route to be designated hereafter, probably through Northern and Northeastern Georgia. The DIVISION commanders have been directed to report immediately the strength, locality, and condition of their commands, the number of mounted and dismounted men, of horses serviceable and unserviceable, and the number of horses required to place their commands in an efficient condition, together with such other information as will enable me to complete the organization contemplated.

I send for your information a letter of instructions to Lieutenant-Colonel Hammond and my letter to Major W. R. Price, assistant inspector-general, Cavalry Bureau, at Washington, D. C., for the purpose of putting in your possession all the data upon which to base your actions

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* See Special Field Orders, Numbers 103, p. 414.

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