[CHAP. XLII.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION, September 2, 1863.

Brigadier General J. A. GARFIELD, Chief of Staff:

SIR: Captain Henry Baker, Third Confederate Cavalry, taken prisoner Friday, 28th instant, has been examined and the following general facts gathered:

If the position at Chattanooga is flanked the Confederate army will not risk a battle there. Bragg is now making some movement up the river, which Captain Baker says he understands, but will not divulge, and from what could be gathered in conversation it is a flank movement on Burnside. The prisoner states that it is believed in Bragg's army that the fate of the Confederacy hangs upon the issue of a battle that must be made somewhere with the army of General Rosecrans. Bragg will be compelled to fight his army within two months or lose it by desertion.

Respectfully, sir,
TH. J. WOOD,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

[Indorsement.]

HDQRS. FIRST DIVISION, TWENTY-FIRST ARMY CORPS,
Near Jasper, September 2, 1863.

Respectfully forwarded through corps headquarters for the information of the commanding general of the Army of the Cumberland, with a request that this communication be forwarded to department headquarters with as little delay as possible.

I consider the information important, as it corroborates the information I have been receiving for several days past from entirely different and independent source (my own spies and scouts), and explains facts and movements reported by General Wagner, but which are unintelligible without this key. Captain Baker intimated that the strength of Burnside's forces was known in their army, and I conclude that it is still more probable his position is understood through their spies and scouts. I should remark, for a better understanding of this information, that nothing was gained by direct statement from him, as he was very cautious, but in a long and general conversation the facts were elicited.

TH. J. WOOD,

Brigadier-General of Volunteers, Commanding.

HDQRS. FIRST BRIG., SECOND CAVALRY DIVISION,
Smith's Cross-Roads, Tenn. Valley, September 2. 1863.

Captain OLDERSHAW, A. A. G., 21st Army Corps:

SIR: A scout of 200 men has this moment returned from Kingston, bringing in 12 prisoners and having lost 1 man mortally wounded. My men entered Kingston with the advance of Burnside's army. Forrest has fallen back across the Tennessee River.

The three boats which came down the river the night before last were the Tennessee, the Holston, and the James Glover, from Loudon, with six barges in tow, all light. All the other boats at Laudon had been collected together for the purpose of being burned; and on Sunday evening, when the steamers were a few miles below Loudon, those on board saw a large fire at that place; some supposed