NASHVILLE, TENN., March 14, 1864-8.30 p. m.

(Received 1 a. m., 15th.)

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

Chief of Staff:

I will order what remains in the field of the Ninth Corps to Annapolis, Md., as soon as they can go. Please direct the veterans of that corps to assemble at the expiration of their leave at the same place.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

NASHVILLE, March 14, 1864.

Major-General BURNSIDE:

I have order the Ninth Corps from Knoxville to Annapolis and requested the Secretary of War to direct the veterans to rendezvous at that place. Please send this order to all regiments of the corps about to return to the field.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

NASHVILLE, March 14, 1864.

Major-General THOMAS:

Do your troops occupy the same line now they did when you telegraphed me their position last? I shall leave here about the last of the week and should like to be posted as to the present position of both armies before I go.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE,
Memphis, March 14, 1864.

Major-General McPHERSON,

Commanding, &c., Vicksburg, Miss.:

DEAR GENERAL: I wrote you at length on the 11th by a special bearer of dispatches, and now make special orders to cover the movements therein indicated. It was my purpose to await here your answer, but I am summoned by General Grant to be in Nashville on the 17th, and it will keep me moving night and day. I must rely on you. You understand that we must re-enforce the great army at the center as much as possible; at the same time not risk any point on the Mississippi fortified and armed with heavy guns. I want you to push matters as rapidly as possible, and do all you can to put two handsome division of your own corps at Cairo, ready to embark up the Tennessee by the 20th or 30th of April at the very furthest. I wish i could be done quicker, but these thirty-days' furloughs in the States of enlistment, through politic, are very unmilitary. It deprives us of our ability to calculate as to time. But do the best you can. Hurlbut can do nothing until Smith returns from Red River and matters settle down, when I will order him to occupy Grenada temporarily, to try get those locomotives that we need here. I may also order him with cavalry and infantry toward Tuscaloosa at the time we move from the Tennessee.