the battles of 19th, 20th, and 21st instant is being prepared, and a copy will be forwarded to you soon.

Stations of observation communicating directly with department headquarters were occupied on Lookout Mountain, and much valuable information obtained. They were valuable also for communication, as the map* I will send you with my report shows. Brigadier-General Morton, chief engineer, informed me that every movement indicated by the reports of observations made had been by the result proved correct. It was impossible to communicate on the battle-field, owing to the dense timber, but communication was kept up with our flanks, and observations continued until the army had safely retired to Chattanooga. Four officers were left on the point of Lookout Mountain, and a regiment of infantry sent there to guard them. Their horses and wagons were sent to camp, they retaining three days' rations. The road to the top of the mountain was destroyed. They remained there until the enemy, having ascended some 10 miles farther down the mountain, demonstrated on them so strongly that General Rosecrans ordered them to withdraw under cover of night. They got off safely after having climbed down the side of a mountain more than 2,000 feet high. Lieutenant George W. Landrum, a valuable and efficient officer, is missing, and nothing of his whereabouts can be learned. Private William L. Vorhis was slightly wounded, and is missing.

I have to report the loss of almost 3 miles of insulated wire, which, by direction of General Rosecrans, was used in completing his telegraphic communication with Chattanooga.

Very respectfully, colonel, your obedient servant,

JESSE MERRILL,

Captain, and Chief Sig. Officer, Dept. of the Cumberland.

Colonel ALBERT J. MYER,

Signal Officer of the Army.

HDQRS. SIGNAL CORPS, DEPT. OF THE CUMBERLAND, Chattanooga, Tenn., October 1, 1863.

COLONEL: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of the detachment of the signal corps with this army, under my command during this campaign, commencing with our arrival at Stevenson:

Immediately after the occupation of Sequatchie Valley by the Twenty-first Army Corps, communication by signal was established from Pikeville to Dunlap [corps headquarters], and from there to Therman. This was afterward connected with line from Stevenson [department headquarters] to Jasper, via Bridgeport, and subsequently with that part of the Twentieth Army Corps which crossed the Tennessee River at Caperton's Ferry. This formed a continuous line of signals from the right to the left of the army.

On the 4th of September, a line branching from the main line at Crown Point, on Walden's Ridge, running across that ridge to the front of Chattanooga, the position occupied by Wagner's and Wilder's brigades, was established.

After the crossing of the river by the troops, our line was changed so as to connect with the telegraph at Shellmound. The telegraph

---------------

*Not found.

---------------