HEADQUARTERS LEFT WING,
November 7, [1862] - 7.15 p. m.

[General GRANT:]

GENERAL: Two deserters arrived here from Fifth Kentucky Infantry; left Holly Springs on Wednesday - the day before yesterday - and say the wagons of the army had already gone and that the wagons were removing the sick and that evacuation was the order of the day. They got news of our movement on Tuesday night; that we were 50,000 strong, moving from Bolivar, Corinth, and Memphis, and orders were given to evacuate the next morning. These two men were examined separately, each telling the same story. They were twelve-months' men, whose time was out in September, and this is the first chance they have had to get away.

Quinby will get away by 8 a. m. if we get rations in the night.

Yours, truly,

C. S. HAMILTON,

Brigadier-General.

They report much sickness in Price's army. Please send me papers of the 5th, if any have arrived.

HEADQUARTERS,
Jackson, November 7, 1862.

General GRANT:

Some person must be appointed to take charge of the railroad. As it stands, there is no system nor order. It must be done at once.

S. A HURLBUT,

Major-General.

JACKSON, November 7, 1862.

Major-General GRANT:

The Twentieth are ready to move as soon as the road is open. I will send Stevenson's brigade directly after, or, if your order it, will march them by land. Does General McPherson need Foster's cavalry? If so, will send it through. My cavalry force here is very small. What shall be done with the Engineer Regiment?

S. A. HURLBUT.

SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS, HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE TENNESSEE,

In Field, La Grange, Tenn., Nov. 7, Numbers 1. 1862.

It is with extreme regret that the general commanding has had his attention called to the gross acts of vandalism committed by some of the men composing the two wings of the army on the march from Corinth and Bolivar to his place. Houses have been plundered and burned down, fencing destroyed, and citizens frightened without an inquiry as to their status in this rebellion; cattle and hogs shot and stock driven off, without any observance of the rules prescribed in general orders for taking such property for public use. Such acts are punishable with death by the Articles of war and existing orders. They are calculated to destroy the efficiency of an army and to make open enemies of those who before, if not friends, were at least non-combatants.

Officers are more to blame for these acts of violence than the men