WINCHESTER, August 16, 1863.

Major-General CRITTENDEN:

Your dispatch received. The general commanding instructs me to say that you can borrow some cavalry from Minty after you get in the valley. When they report, send the company of mounted infantry, with all dispatches you may wish to send, to its corps. Send in cipher. Full headings are useless in cipher dispatches.

CHAS. R. THOMPSON,

Captain and Aide-de-Camp.

HDQRS. THIRD DIVISION, TWENTY-FIRST ARMY CORPS,
McMinnville, August 16, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel LYNE STARLING,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Twenty-first Army Corps:

There is a regiment of rebel cavalry at Sparta. Beyond that point I know of no rebel force nearer than Kingston and Post Oak. I have everything in readiness for march. Colonel Minty informs me that he has no forage, but will have to-night by railroad. Expect to camp to-night at Collins River, 7 miles; to-morrow night at headwaters of Rocky River, on the mountain.

H. P. VAN CLEVE,

Brigadier-General.

WINCHESTER, August 16, 1863.

Major General G. GRANGER,

Nashville:

One of our scouts reports Coffey, with a party of bushwhackers, on the rampage this side of Caney Fork.

FRANK S. BOND,

Major and Aide-de-Camp.

HDQRS. THIRD BRIGADE, FIRST CAVALRY DIVISION,
Brownsborough, Ala., August 16, 1863.

Captain JOHN PRATT,

Assistant Adjutant-General, First Cavalry Division:

CAPTAIN: The location of my present camp is a very unhealthy on indeed, and already several men in the command are suffering with chills and fever. The country all around is either of a low, swampy character or too rough and hilly for cavalry to camp on, and I should like very much to move out of it. If Colonel McCook would permit me to move back, say to Huntsville, I could then guard the Tennessee River more closely, and at the same time keep up the guard over the Flint River and Hurricane Creek bridges. Be kind enough to let me hear from you as soon as possible.

I am, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

LOUIS D. WATKINS,

Colonel, Comdg. Third Brigade, First Cavalry Division.