of them have already arrived at their destination. I have not seen a Cincinnati paper for some days, but a gentleman casually informed me that there had been some complaint in reference to neglect on the part of the commissary department, though we thought the complaint only applied to the small force under General Meagher proceeding east by Pittsburg. That there may be no misapprehension, would it not be well for one of you to see the editors of your papers in regard to the movement of the Twenty-third Army Corps, letting it be knonw that the small force moving from Nashville have no connection with it, and was moving without your own or my authority or instructions. As you are aware, the movement of the Twenty-third Army Corps was very hastily decided upon, and that until my arrival at the mouth of the Tennessee I had no express instructions in regard to the same, further than to report and await orders; and that after receiving such orders the whole force within three days was embarked at Clifton, and the most of it proceeding up the Ohio. The transportation until we arrived at Cincinnati was every way satisfactory, the weather being comparatively mild and pleasant. At Cincinnati I heard of no complaint, unless it was owing to a few hours delay in proceeding for lack of rations, and of which in moving so large a force it would be hardly just to complain of the commissary. The cars were all amply provided with straw, and many of them with stoves, though the latter were not deemed necessary for the short trip to Bellaire, in weather no colder than it was when most of them left Cincinnati. Unfortunately, trains being thrown off the track several times on the Ohio Central, there have been very considerable detentions in getting them through to this point. At Columbus and this place a most ample supply of coffee was furnished to all the regiments immediately on arrival, as also at four different points on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and I never saw a body of men more satisfied or merry than were these troops on reaching this point. On arriving here I immediately took steps to secure an ample supply of stoves and straw to make the troops comfortable in passing over the mountains. Most of the corps have already arrived at Washington, and I am in receipt of dispatch informing me that the Secretary of War, Generals Halleck, Schofield, and Couch express themselves in the highest degree satisfied and pleased with the rapidity and great success of the movement in all respects.

There have been some reports of injury to persons by freezing and otherwise, but after the most careful inquiry in every direction I have not been able to ascertain that a single man has suffered in life or limb in any respect, and Iatement are pure fiction. When it is considered that this movement was so suddenly decided and so promptly acted upon, and that 20,000 men will have been transported nearly 1,500 miles by river and rail, amid the constant changes and severities of midwinter, I know there is no one of the gentlemen controlling your papers who will not regard it in its true light, as one of the remarkable events of this most remarkable war; the like of which, everything considered, has not been before accomplished. The movement of the Twenty-second [Eleventh and Twelfth] Army Corps of 22,000 men from the East to the West was effected in delightful autumn weather, and with ample time for previous preparation, and the route distinctly fixed upon. One thing is certain, so far as I am concerned, that no consideration will again induce me voluntarily to assume the general supervision and fearful responsibility of such a movement in such a period of the year, and I am sure that no man would care to endure the painful anxieties and difficulties through which I have passed for the last