try to traverse it. I incurred no risk whatever, being fully posted as to the position and numbers of the enemy. My intimate knowledge of that section would enable me to do the enemy great damage if I was fully authorized to act. I shall do nothing, however, to jeopardize my command without further orders.

Since the date of my last report 6 have joined by conscription and I have arrested 4 deserters belonging to my regiment and 4 belonging to other commands. I have but little confidence in a portion of those we are now conscripting unless they are retained in this section. In that event the probability is that they will make good soldiers.

I am, sir, very respectfully,

S. S. IVES,

Colonel, Commanding Thirty-fifth Alabama Regiment.

Lieutenant Colonel THOMAS M. JACK,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Demopolis, Ala.

APRIL 12-16, 1864.-Reconnaissance from Bridgeport down the Tennessee River to vicinity of Triana, Ala.

Report of Brigadier General John W. Geary, U. S. Army, commanding Second Division, Twelfth Army Corps.

HDQRS. SECOND DIVISION, TWELFTH ARMY CORPS,
Bridgeport, Ala., April 16, 1864.

GENERAL: I have the honor to report the progress and results of an expedition down the Tennessee River, made in pursuance of orders of the major-general commanding, under date of April 10, instant:

Owing to the high state of water it was found impossible to pass the steam-boat Chickamauga, which reported from above on the 11th, by the main stream under the bridge at this point. The draw-bridge on the opposite side of the island being imperfect and inoperative, she was not ready for the embarkation of the troops until noon of the 12th.

We steamed from Bridgeport at 2 o'clock on the afternoon of the 12th, having on board and in tow scows alongside the Seventh and Sixty-sixth Ohio, detachments of the Twenty-eighth and One hundred and forty-seventh Pennsylvania, and one section of Knap's Pennsylvania battery, in all about 800 men, with an ample supply of ammunition and ten days' rations. I manned a 12-pounder howitzer and a small mountain howitzer upon the boat. These additional pieces proved very serviceable.

At an early hour I dispatched 14 of the First Alabama Cavalry, all that were available, along the south side of the river to Island Creek for information, and to destroy all boats in that stream, which they accomplished.

We passed down the river by Island and Widow's Creeks and Caperton's Ferry, Coon Island, and Coon and Mud Creeks, Bellefonte Islands, and Riley's Creek. I had dispatched detachments of infantry and the cavalry along the south side to advance by way of Cedar Bluff, Caperton's Ferry, and Crowton, to a point about 5 miles up Raccoon Creek, descending that stream and destroying all boats on it; thence to Riley's Creek, demolishing crafts secreted in the bushes. These orders were satisfactorily executed by 7.30 o'clock in the evening.