HASHVILLE, TENN., October 26, 1864.

COMMANDING OFFICER GUN-BOAT FLEET,

Bridgeport, Ala.:

If you have a gun-boat at Bridgeport I desire you to take as many men as you can carry down the river to Claysville to defend the crossing of the river at that place.

GEO. H. THOMAS,

Major-General, U. S. Volunteers, Commanding.

BRIDGEPORT, ALA., October 26, 1864.

(Received 27th.)

General G. H. THOMAS:

Dispatch received, and have just received one from a gun-boat at Claysville. There are two boats between the points you mention and I will try to get a THIRD. The river is very low. A dispatch received to-day mentions a Union prisoner who was captured at Dalton and who reports the enemy 28,000 strong at or near Warrenton.

M. FORREST,

Commanding Eleventh District, MISSISSIPPI Squadron.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. MILITARY DIST. OF Kentucky, Numbers 7.
Lexington, Ky., October 26, 1864.

It has come to the knowledge of the general commanding that persons I this military distirct, in public speeches and otherwise, are encouraging their partisans to got o the polls armed at the ensuing election, under the false pretense that the military meditate illegal interference. A more effectual means of inciting the large rebel element in our midst to acts of violence and of deterring peaceable and orderly citizens from attending the polls could not be well devised. The commanding general is resolved, so far as the means at his disposal will allow, to have a fair and free election, and to this end every aid will be afforded to the officers of the election in enforcing the State laws upon the subject, both as to the admission of qualified voters and the exclusion of these who are disqualified. The rebel element in our midst, whether resident or sojourning from other States, has no right to interfere in our election, s an those who are known as adherents of the cause of the rebellion will not be p[ermitted to indulge in seditious discussions, attend political meetings, or the places of voting on election day; they must remain quiet or leave the State. The act of the Legislature of the State of Kentucky of March 11, 1862, must be the test of political rights to all such, and neither false oaths nor the culpable connivance of partisan officers of election will shield from punishment hose who violate it. The following is the act of the legislature above referred to:

AN ACT to amend Chapter 15 of the Revised Statutes, entitled citizen's expatriation and aliens.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted, &c., That any citizen of this State who shall enter into the service of the so-called Confederate States, in either a civil or military capacity, or enter into the service of the so-called provisional government of Kentucky, in either a civil or military capacity, or having heretofore entered such service of either the Confederate States or provisional government, or shall continue in such service after this act takes effect, or shall take up and continue in arms against