Numbers 3.

Report of Brigadier General Eugene A. Carr, U. S. Army, commanding Left Wing.

CORINTH, [October] 7, 1863.

Colonel Moyers, Third Michigan, reports:

I reached New Albany on the 5th. Ferguson had left there on the 3rd with four or five regiments and eight pieces of artillery, toward Pontotoc. Richardson was left with three regiments of cavalry, four pieces of artillery, besides conscripts; in all, 1,800.

Formed line, but the panic was so great that he withdrew, leaving near guard of one regiment, which I attacked and drove 3 miles toward Okolona. Richardson went same way. I lost 1 men killed. We killed 2, captured 11 with arms, and 15 horses and equipments. In panic at New Albany one entire company of Tennessee conscripts escaped, beside many stragglers. Satisfied that there is no force from Tupelo to the Mississippi River, except those engaged in conscripting.

Johnston is at Meridian organizing an army.

* * * * * * *

E. A. CARR,

Brigadier-General.

Major-General HURLBUT.

Numbers 4.

Report of Brigadier General Thomas W. Sweeny, U. S. Army, commanding Second Division.

HDQRS. SECOND DIVISION, SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS, La Grange, Tenn., October 21, 1863.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the expedition which left this place on the morning of the 11th instant:

In order that you may fully understand the precise position of affairs previous to the departure of the expedition, it is necessary that I should state the following facts:

On the 8th, Colonel Hatch arrived at this place from Memphis, with authority from General Hurlbut to take command of the Cavalry Division. He left about noon for Salem, taking all the cavalry at this place.

On that day our cavalry, under Colonel McGrillis, with the mounted infantry and a section of Captain Tannarth's battery, under Colonel Phillips, were attacked by the enemy at Salem, and driven back on the railroad with considerable loss.

Colonel Hatch moved on Salem on the morning of the 9th. Not knowing that McGrillis and Phillips had been driven back, but finding the enemy too strong, fell back here. He reported the enemy as having been re-enforced on the night of the 8th with two brigades, and estimated their force at 6,000 men, including infantry and artillery.

I immediately issued an order to the troops at this place to hold themselves in readiness to move out at daybreak to attack the enemy. Late in the evening Colonel Hatch informed me that it would be impossible to get his command in readiness to move next morning, which compelled me to postpone the expedition until the 11th. I, however, sent Colonel Rice to Davis' Mills, with two regiments of infantry and a section of artillery, to guard the crossing of Wolf River at that point.