I regret exceedingly not having seen you as I passed through Frankfort, but I expect to be in Louisville next week, and, if possible, will visit you at Frankfort. I desire to see you in person for the purpose of conferring more fully than is possible by letter upon the questions alluded to herein.

U. S. GRANT,

Major-General.

LA GRANGE, TENN., January 13, 1864.

General TUTTLE:

I have the honor to submit the following scout report: Leaving La Grange, Tenn., Friday morning, the 8th instant, proceeded south by the Holly Springs road, crossed the Central Railroad at Lamar, Miss.; Saturday, the 9th, passed (6 miles south of Holly Springs) 60 rebel soldiers, armed with muskets only, but well mounted, who reported themselves as Captain Craft's command, raised in Marshall and Tippah Counties, for border service, but who had been ordered to report to General Chalmers at Oxford, at which they expressed great dissatisfaction.

Found no force of the enemy at Waterford, on the Central Railroad. Met at this place a private of the Forty-third Mississippi, who left Canton on the 1st. General Loring's division is still at the latter place, on short rations of beef of a very inferior quality.

There is at present no rebel force north of Tallahatchie, owing to the scarcity of forage. On Thursday, the 7th instant, General Forrest was at Panola with about 3,000 men, Chalmers at Oxford with 1,500, and Richardson at Harrisburg, in Pontotoc County, with 1,500 more.

Corn not being permitted to pass the Tallahatchie causes great destitution north of that river. There is thought to be sufficient in the border counties to prevent suffering, but the great trouble is a proper distribution of it.

General Forrest proposes to appoint a number of citizens, giving them passes to the Federal lines with cotton for the purchase of supplies, which shall be sold for "greenbacks," or if for Confederate money, at a price of which an exchange can be effected without loss.

Rebels still talk of success, and claim that they never can be conquered, but that being starved into subjection is among the probabilities, and are not so sanguine as thirty days since. Want of confidence in Confederate money, with which alone corn can scarcely be obtained, and only at ruinous prices, had developed something of a Union feeling, ten dollars in Confederate being gladly exchanged for one "Yankee dollar." There is still some cotton in the country, half of which is in the field. Planters will raise but little corn the coming season, but will turn their attention almost exclusively to cotton.

LA GRANGE, January 14, 1864.

General HURLBUT,

Commanding Sixteenth Army Corps:

I send you inclosed [above] report of one of my scouts; he is one of my most reliable men. Some things I suppose you will want to take notice of.

J. M. TUTTLE,

Brigadier-General.