The Third Michigan and Seventh Kansas Cavalry, which were re-enlisted and sent home in the early part of February, have not yet returned.

Owing to the scarcity in the supply of horses to this division, the effective strength of the command is reduced to less than 2,000. Only 1,500 horses have been furnished during the last ten months.

Numbers 37. Reports of Colonel George E. Waring, jr., Fourth Missouri Cavalry, commanding First Cavalry Brigade, of operations January 22-February 27.

HDQRS. FIRST Brigadier, CAVALRY DIV., 16TH ARMY CORPS,
Collierville, Tenn., February 10, 1864.

CAPTAIN: In obedience to the order of the chief of cavalry, Military Division of the Mississippi, I respectfully forward the following report of the march of my command from Union City, Tenn., to this post:

In obedience to the order of Brigadier General A. J. Smith, commanding Sixth Division, Sixteenth Corps (copy inclosed marked A), I marched my command from Union City at daybreak, January 22. The Troy Battom, which surrounds Union City, was almost impassable and I waited within 2 miles of my starting-place until my supply train had got through it (2 p.m.). I then started for Sharp's Ferry of the Obion River. I found the next 4 miles of the way very bad, and many wagons stuck fast in the mud. Leaving my quartermaster in charge of the train, I pushed on to a point 4 miles from Sharp's Ferry, 13 miles from Union City, passing nearly the whole train on the road. Here I halted for the night, sending orders forward to Colonel Karge to commence crossing the command immediately. I sent a party back to press all the teams in the country and send them back to lighten the supply train.

By 10 a.m. of January 23, I received information that the train was over the worst of the road, and I marched on to the Ferry (23 miles from Union City), reaching there about 4 p.m. I found the rope of the ferry broken and the boat swamped in the ice, with which the river was entirely choked. The ice was cut away and the river freed. At 7 p.m. the Nineteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry was nearly all across. The prisoner corps (120 men) of the provost guard (2 companies, Fourth Missouri Cavalry) and the battalion of the Second Illinois Cavalry had crossed before. Seeing that everything was going on well, I crossed the river at 9 p.m. with my staff and orderlies, and started for the camp of the advance, 5 miles from the ferry, intending to decide on the road to be taken and send the pioneers forward to repair the road.

I found the road for 3 miles from the ferry (through the bottom) almost impassable for wagons and even difficult for cavalry, on account of the depth of water in the sloughs. In one place, for about 50 yards, the water was from 2 to 4 feet deep and filled with large cakes of broken ice, which caused the horses and men to fall at every few steps. I sent word to the commanding officer of the Nineteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry not to attempt to cross the bottom until daylight. As the whole bottom was covered with water and it