HEADQUARTERS WESTERN DEPARTMENT,
Tupelo, Miss., June 13, 1862.

Brigadier General DANIEL RUGGLES,

Commanding, &c., Grenada, Miss.:

GENERAL: I am instructed to acquaint you with the following wishes of the commander of the forces: Grenada will be evacuated as a depot for this army with the least delay practicable, to which end you will have all the ordnance, ordnance stores and supplies, and other public property there sent with all practicable dispatch to Gainesville, Ala., via Jackson and Meridian, Miss., reserving only subsistence for your command while at Grenada and ten day's rations for the movement. Meanwhile, if practicable or as soon as practicable, all unarmed troops under your command will be sent to Columbus by means of the railroads. This, however, must not interfere with the rapid removal of the ordnance supplies in store at Grenada. Hold your effective force ready to march hither at short notice via Coffeville, Sarepta, Pontotoc, and Harrisburg, or by any better route should you be able to find one by a careful reconnaissance, especially with regard to water, of the routes in this direction, which the general desires you to have made at once by judicious and fully competent persons. At the same time it is particularly desirable that the subsistence resources of the country through which you will march shall be ascertained, and, if practical, subsistence should be purchased and collected at points on your line of march, so that may move if possible with less than ten days' rations, or indeed, with only the small rations. You will thus save means of transportation, which you will be expected to collect in your vicinity, stipulating, if necessary, with the owners that their wagons and teams shall be return to them without delay from this place, if not from points on the march. The command will bivouac and move with only cooking equipment and the proper changes of clothing. All other baggage will be sent off by the railroad.

Respectfully, general, your obedient servant,

GEORGE WM. BRENT,

Acting Chief of Staff.

CAMP NEAR THOMBIGREE RIVER,

June 13, 1862.

Colonel KIMMEL,

Adjutant-General, Army of the West:

SIR: I have just heard through one of my spies that the whole Federal army is moving in the direction of Tuscumbia by way of Iuka. General Buell passed through Burnsville yesterday. The soldiers of the Federal army report that 60,000 are going Virginia as rapidly as they can march. They also report our forces at Cumberland Gap have cut their army to pieces, and that a portion of their army will march to that point. It is a universal report among the citizens that the enemy have vacated the following points: Baldwyn, Booneville, Rienzi and Corinth. They have left 5,000 cavalry to bring up the rear. I leave with my command at daylight in the morning, and will send a messenger for the nearest point to the enemy where reliable information can be obtained.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. R. BRADFUTE,

Commanding Outpost Cavalry.