A full list of the prisoners captured, about 200, is in course of preparation, and will be forwarded as soon as it can be completed.

Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

WM. SOOY SMITH,

Brigadier General Chief of Cavalry, Mil. Div. of the Mississippi.

Lieutenant Colonel R. M. SAWYER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Indorsement.]

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Nashville, Tenn., April 9, 1864.

Respectfully forwarded to the Adjutant-General, U. S. Army, at Washington.

I have heretofore reported on this case, and can now only add that General Smith should have moved on time at any and every risk. His instructions here* are as specific as could possibly have been made before the occurrence of the events.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

Numbers 36. Report of Brigadier General Benjamin H. Grierson, U. S. Army, commanding Cavalry Division, Sixteenth Army Corps, of expedition from Memphis, with itinerary of the division for February and March.

HDQRS. CAVALRY DIVISION, 16TH ARMY CORPS,
Memphis, Tenn., March 19, 1864.

LIEUTENANT: I have the honor herewith to transmit the official reports of the regimental and brigade commanders of the part taken by their respective commands in the late expedition to West Point, Miss., and return.

By direction of General William Sooy Smith, myself and staff marched with the Second Brigade, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel W. P. Hepburn, for the movements of which I refer you to his report, herewith inclosed. This brigade composed the column marching upon the extreme right during a portion of the trip; consequently I could not control the movements of the other two columns, that on the left being at times 30 miles away.

During the expedition I sent detachments and secured the ferry over the Tombigbee River at Cotton Gin, also at Aberdeen. At this latter place I ordered a bridge prepared in case it should be deemed advisable to cross; otherwise it would serve as a demonstration to mislead the enemy as to our real intentions. The bridge would have been finished in about three hours, when I received orders from General Smith to move with the Second Brigade westward to Prairie Station.

I beg leave to bear testimony to the gallantly displayed by both officers and men as far as they came under my notice. The cause of

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* Reference is to instructions of January 27, appended to Smih's report. See Sherman's inclosure No. 3, p.181.

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