mediate apprehension of danger, is approved of; but owing to the expedition already ordered and in motion, our cavalry and mounted force is so reduced that it will be difficult to get up a force strong enough to cross to the south side of the Tennessee at present.

The enemy, however, must not be permitted to remain on this side. You will therefore collect and organize at once, under a competent officer, all the mounted men possible of your command for the purpose suggested in your dispatch and indicated above. The place for them to rendezvous, and when and where to move for the attainment of the desired object, will be left entirely to your own judgment and direction.

A copy of your dispatch of the 19th instant, giving information obtained by the force of yours from 6 miles west of Florence the day before, was on date of receipt sent to General Thomas with the following directions:

You will direct General Crook to organize an expedition at once, of sufficient force, and proceed without delay by the most practicable route and drive Roddey out from where he now is, and destroy all boats and materials he can find that might in any contingency be used by the enemy in crossing the Tennessee River.

No report has yet been had from General Crook. General W. S. Smith was to have moved from Memphis the 25th instant, via Okolona, with a large force of cavalry, General Shermand at the same time from Vicksburg eastward a formidable force of all arms, and General Logan has already thrown a pontoon bridge across the Tennessee River at Larkin's Ferry, over which he will cross in a day or two at farthest, moving toward Rome with all his command, leaving only his railroad guards behind. The forces at Chattanooga are not inactive. From all these expeditions and threatening movements it is hoped much will be accomplished, and especially in forcing the enemy back from within striking distance of our communications.

By order of Major-General Grant:

JOHN A. RAWLINS,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

HDQRS. THIRD Brigadier, THIRD DIV., ELEVENTH CORPS, Whiteside's, Tenn., January 30, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel T. A. MEAYSENBURG,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Eleventh Corps:

COLONEL: I have the honor to report that a section of artillery, two pieces, 12-pounders, of Battery G, Fourth U. S. Artillery, arrived here yesterday afternoon and reported to me; this artillery came with horses belonging to another battery which were sent back. The pieces are in position in the earth-work occupied formerly by a battery of Fourth Army Corps.

Convinced of the insufficiency of the earth-work erected here, the embrasures not covering the whole ground the fort was destined for, nor even by direct firing covering the ground with the whole fire, only a third of it being effective, and after a careful examination of the work, and how this deficiency in it could be remedied, I found that entirely different embrasures ought to be made. I then ordered Lieutenant Richard Wilson, second lieutenant Third U. S. Artillery, to give me his views in a report, of which I have the honor to subjoin a copy; and as my instructions were to occupy the positions of the