Captain BESTOW,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

SIR: I would respectfully report that the pickets on our front report a considerable camp of the enemy about 2 miles southeast of the fort. Their opinion is based upon the sound of drums, bugles, and a band heard in that direction last evening and this morning. They also report the sound of chopping and the falling of trees, and the sound of moving wagons in the same direction, apparently near the road leading southeast from the fort. They also heard similar noises in an easterly direction and the whistle of cars in the distance.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

T. R. PALMER,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Inspector First Division.

HEADQUARTERS SECOND DIVISION, September 27, 1863-9,50 p.m.

Captain OLDERSHAW,
Assistant Adjutant-General:

CAPTAIN: The skirmishing you have heard is to the extreme right and wholly visible from my position. All is quiet in my front and fewer fires than usual visible on rebel lines.

Soon after the skirmishing commenced, a battery of artillery appeared to move off along our lines from somewhere to my right to the extreme right of our lines.

The fire of the skirmishers has seemed to recede constantly as if it were a reconnaissance of our people. The only feature unusual observed was the ascent of a blood-red rocket from the top of Lookout Mountain soon after the skirmishing began.

Yours, truly,

CHARLES CRUFT,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. THIRD DIVISION, TWENTY-FIRST ARMY CORPS, September 27, 1863.

Captain E. A. OTIS,
Assistant Adjutant-General:

SIR: I have the honor to report that all was quiet in our immediate front last night. The enemy kept blazing fires on the hills without the appearance of any camp there, and the pickets heard a great deal of chopping in that direction far toward the hills.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

P. T. SWAINE,

Colonel Ninety-ninth Ohio Vol. Infantry, Comdg. Advance.

HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES, Bridgeport, Ala., September 27, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel C. GODDARD,

Asst. Adjt. General, Department of the Cumberland:

COLONEL: I have the honor to report that 16 deserters from the enemy and refugees have just come in to this post from Northern Ala-