HDQRS. FOURTH DIVISION, SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Cairo, Ill., March 22, 1864-11.50 p. m.

Brigadier General M. BRAYMAN,

Commanding District of Cairo:

SIR: Your letter stating that Forrest is threatening Columbus is received. The command will immediately be placed in condition to move at at any moment.

I have the honor to be, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

F. W. FOX,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE WEST TENN., AND NORTH MISS.,
In the Field, March 22, 1864.

Brigadier-General BUCKLAND or

COMMANDING OFFICER U. S. FORCES,

Memphis, Tenn.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to transmit the inclosed report, prepared from a thorough investigation of all the facts in the premises:*

I respectfully demand that restitution be made by the U. S. authorities in the sum of $5,139.25 to the citizens of Jackson, Tenn., the amount extorted from them by Colonel Fielding Hurst, on or about the 12th day of February, 1864, under threats of burning the town.

It appears that within the past two months seven cases of deliberate murder have been committed in this department, most of them known and all believed to have been perpetrated by the command of Colonel Hurst. I therefore demand the surrender of Colonel Fielding Hurst and the officers and men of his command guilty of these murders, to be dealt with by the C. S. authorities as their offenses require. It has also come to my knowledge that many citizens of this portion of the State are now held in confinement by the U. S. authorities against whom no charges have been preferred, among them the Rev. G. W. D. Harris, of Dyer County, Tenn., now in confinement at Fort Pillow.

I demand that Mr. Harris be granted a fair trail before a competent tribunal, or else unconditionally and promptly released, or otherwise I shall place in close confinement 5 Federal soldiers, now in my hands, as hostages for his protection, and in case he should die in your hands from ill treatment these men shall be duly executed in retaliation.

Lieutenant Colonel W. M. Reed, bearer of these dispatches and temporarily attached to my staff, is hereby authorized to examine any communications which may be delivered in reply to the above, and also to conclude such arrangements as may arise from the subjects hereinbefore mentioned, or otherwise to deliver such papers as by me he is authorized in possible contingencies to present.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

N. B. FORREST,

Major-General, Commanding.

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*See also Forrest to Jack, March 21, post.

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