HEADQUARTERS,
Collierville, February 9, 1864-9.50 p.m.

Brigadier-General BUCKLAND,

Commanding:

Please communicate an order from me to Colonel McMillen to move with his brigade eastward toward Wyatt, and threaten a crossing of Tallahatchie at that point. A cavalry brigade will start from Germantown toward the same point to-morrow.

WM. SOOY SMITH,

Brigadier General, Chief of Cavalry, Div. of the Mississippi.

SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS, HDQRS. CHIEF OF CAVALRY,

MIL. DIV. OF THE MISSISSIPPI,

No. 2. Collierville, Tenn., February 9, 1864.

On the march about to be made by this command, the troops will move in columns of one brigade each, as nearly on parallel lines and within close supporting distances of each other as the roads of the country and the supplies of forage it affords will permit. Constant communication will be kept up between the center and each of the right and left columns.

Heavy and continuous firing at the positions of any column will be cause sufficient for the other brigades to move promptly to the support of the one engaged, unless circumstances known to the brigade commanders would render such movement hazardous and inexpedient. To this extent discretionary power must reside in the subordinate commanders. The strength of cavalry consisting to a great extent in its momentum, the attack must be made en masse, and with just such rate of speed as is consistent with a maintenance of the organization of each command.

Our commands must never be permitted to receive a charge at a halt, but must meet charge with charge.

All officers of every grade are specially instructed to inculcate the idea that on favorable ground a saber charge of our forces upon the enemy, who have laid aside their sabers, must result in most signal and decisive success, if resolutely made.

Trusting in the justice of our cause, in the valor and patriotism of our fellow soldiers, and in Him who controls all things, I exhort all to an earnest endeavor to write their names in imperishable characters on the page of history that we are about to add to the annals of our beloved country.

By order of Brigadier General W. S. Smith, chief of cavalry, Military Division of the Mississippi:

WM. H. INGERTON,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO,

No. 17.
Knoxville, Tenn., February 9, 1864.

In compliance with Special Orders, No. 29, headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi, February 3, 1864, the undersigned hereby relinquishes the command of the Department and Army of the Ohio to Major General J. M. Schofield, U. S. Volunteers.

J. G. FOSTER,

Major-General, Commanding.