Second Brigade, Colonel James H. Howe, Thirty-second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, commanding: Thirty-second Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, Seventeenth Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry, Twenty-fifth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry; Company D, Second Illinois Light Artillery.

All reports and returns required will be made to brigade commanders.

II. Colonel Howe, commanding Second Brigade, will move his command at 6 o'clock a. m. on the 4th instant, and proceed with as little delay as possible to Black River.

III. Colonel Montgomery, commanding First Brigade, will take charge of the supply train of the corps and the ammunition and quartermaster's and commissary trains of this division and moved the trains with his brigade, following as closely as possible after Colonel Howe.

By order of Brigadier General James C. Veatch:

F. W. FOX,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

NASHVILLE, TENN., February 4, 1864.

(Received 8.49 p. m.)

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

Genera-in-Chief:

Arrived here 5 p. m. to-day. Sherman left Vicksburg the 27th. Many troops have gone to Mobile, mostly from North Carolina and Charleston.

U. S. GRANT,

Major-General.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Nashville, Tenn., February 4, 1864.

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief, Washington, D. C.:

Your letter of the 22nd, inclosing copy of Colonel Stager's of the 21st to you, is received. I have also circular or order, dated January 1, 1864, postmarked Washington, January 23, and received on the 29th.

I will state that Beckwith is one of the best of men. He is competent and industrious. In the matter for which he has been discharged, he only obeyed my orders and could not have done otherwise than he did and remain. Beckwith has always been employed at headquarters as an operator, and I have never thought of taking him with me except when headquarters are moved. On the occasion of my going to Knoxville, I received Washington dispatches which of my going to Knoxville, I received Washington dispatches which I could not read until my return to this place. To remedy this for the future I directed Colonel Comstock to acquaint himself with the cipher.

Beckwith desired to telegraph Colonel Stager on the subject before complying with my direction. Not knowing of any order defining who and who alone could be intrusted with the Washington cipher, I then ordered Beckwith to give it to Colonel Comstock and to inform Colonel Stager of the fact that he had done so. I had no