In conclusion, permit me to say that while so much has not been accomplished as I desired, or as perhaps you may have expected, I trust the difficulties to which I have alluded and the frequent interruption to the communications with the army will seem a sufficient excuse.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. W. Johnson,

Brigadier-General of Volunteers, Chief of Cavalry.

SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS,
HDQRS. MIL. DIV. OF THE MISS., In the Field, Gaylesville, Ala., October 26, Numbers 104.
1864.

I. Major-General Stanley will move his entire corps, wagons, artillery, sick, and everything to Chattanooga, and report for orders to Major-General Thomas. He will move his troops, via Alpine, Winston's, &c., to Chattanooga or Bridgeport, according to the intelligence that reaches him of the enemy. He should send all wheels not absolutely necessary to Chattanooga, under small guard, via La Fayette. Any surplus provisions he may have on hand he will turn over to the Fourteenth Corps.

By order of Major General W. T. Sherman:

L. M. DAYTON,

Aide-de-Camp.

SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS,
HDQRS. MIL. DIV. OF THE MISS., In the Field, Gaylesville, Ala., October 26, Numbers 105.
1864.

In the event of military movements or the accidents of war separating the general in command from his military DIVISION, Major General George H. Thomas, commanding the department of the Cumberland, will exercise command over all troops and garrisons not absolutely in the presence of the general-in-chief. The commanding generals of the Departments and Armies of the Ohio and Tennessee will forthwith send abstracts of their returns to General Thomas, at Nashville, in order that he may understand the position and distribution of the troops, and General Thomas may call for such further reports as he may require, disturbing the actual condition of affairs and mixing up the troops of separate departments as little as possible, consistent with the interests of the service.

By order of Major General W. T. Sherman:

L. M. DAYTON,

Aide-de-Camp.

HDQRS. CAVALRY CORPS, MIL. DIV. OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Gaylesville, Ala., October 26, 1864.

Brigadier General J. A. RAWLINS,

Chief of Staff:

I wish I could write you as fully as I wish, but there is some danger of letters falling into other hands than those intended. This is for you and General Grant, that you may be correctly informed of the condition of the cavalry question out west. I have been assigned to the command of all the cavalry forces of the Military DIVISION of the Mississippi, and an order, subject to the President's approval, has been issued by General Sherman, constituting the Cavalry Corps, &c., with instruc