III. All orders heretofore issued from these headquarters on this subject are hereby modified so as to conform to the foregoing orders, and all officers and soldiers heretofore reported "deserters" on the musterroll of June 30, 1862, are hereby declared pardoned as to such muster, and those only will be treated and considered as deserters who remain absent at the muster of August 18, 1862.

By order of Major General W. T. Sherman:

J. H. HAMMOND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE,

Numbers 161.
Corinth, Miss., August 12, 1862.

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V. Brigadier General J. M. Tuttle is hereby relieved from duty at Bolivar, Tenn., and is assigned to the command of the District of Cairo.

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By order of Major General U. S. Grant:

JNO. A. RAWLINS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

ROSECRANS', August 13, 1862.

Major-General GRANT, Corinth:

Your dispatch and the copy from Buell received.* If the rebels will go into Tennessee let them do it; let the general in front, if he cannot successfully fight them, draw them in and destroy the crops as he goes. Let the Government study bear-hunting meanwhile, and learn how even a dog hanging on to the haunches of a bear keeps him from moving till the hunter comes and kills him. Let us fortify and provision needful points so as to be foot and hand free. Your reply to D. C. is good.

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Brigadier-General, U. S. Army.

MEMPHIS, August 13, 1862.

(Via Columbus, August 16, 1862.)

General GRANT, Corinth:

I hear from Grenada often, and have no idea that there is any movement toward Bolivar or Memphis. I had a letter a few days since from Villepigue, at Abbeville Station, south of Tallahatchie. That bridge is done and cars now run to Davis' Mill, 8 miles from Grand Junction. If Curtis were to move on Panola from Helena all this country would be abandoned save by guerrillas. I have three parties of cavalry out to-night and will know if there is any movement from the south toward Bolivar; but I don't believe it.

The enemy wants to keep Curtis, myself, and McClernand occupied with reports, whilst they mass their forces on Chattanooga and Nashville. We ought to attack their railroads. Curtis' and may troops moving from Helena and here, striking them near Panola and Oxford.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General.

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*See Series I, Vol. XVI, Part II, pp. 315, 316.

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