HDQRS. FOURTH DIVISION, SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Decatur, Ala., April 19, 1864-8 p.m.

Brigadier-General DODGE,

Athens:

All quiet. Scouting party went down the river bank on north side to Brown's Ferry. Saw nothing and no signs of crossing. Strong rebel pickets are still kept ont the Courtland road. This evening they have advanced a picket on the Somerville road, this side of Flint. Information from scouts indefinite and unsatisfactory. If their statements are reliable a large force is collecting near us.

JAMES C. VEATCH,

Brigadier-General.

HUNTSVILLE, April 19, 1864

Major General WILLIAM T. SHERMAN,

Nashville:

I think it will be best to order Major-General Hurlbut around with his corps. As soon as A. J. Smith arrives there will be three divisions of it here, and I am pretty certain he will better satisfied and do better in the field than at Cairo.

Does not Brigadier-General Ewing command the District of West Kentucky in the Department of the Cumberland and will we not have to give some other name to General Prince's command? Will New Madrid come within his jurisdiction? His district, I think, should embrace that portion of Kentucky and Tennessee west of the Tennessee River, and north of a line from Big Sandy through Paris to the Obion River, and along this to the Mississippi.

JAS. B. McPHERSON.

Major-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT AND ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE,
Huntsville, Ala., April 19, 1864

Major General S. A. HURLBUT

Commanding Sixteenth Army Corps, Memphis, Tenn.:

GENERAL: Lieutenant General U. S. Grant has ordered three regiments from Saint Louis to Cairo, with which to re-enforce Paducah, Cairo, and Columbus, and to feel out to Union City. Union City is not to be garrisoned but visited frequently by patrols and scouting parties.

Brigadier General S. D. Sturgis, is en route for Memphis to assume command of all the cavalry in that vicinity and to move out and attack Forrest wherever he can be found. Direct Brigadier-General Grierson to seize all the horses and mules, or as many as may be necessary, in Memphis to mount your cavalry and have them ready for service when General Sturgis arrives, and have Brigadier-General Buckland's brigade of infantry ready to move out with cavalry.,

As soon as it can be done, a force will be organized at Cairo, composed of detachments and veteran regiments belonging to the Seventeenth Army Corps, under Brigadier-General Gresham, and proceed up the Tennessee River, and co-operate with the force from Memphis from the vicinity of Purdy.

Major-General Slocum is en route for Vicksburg, and will immediately organize a force and strike at the enemy from Yazoo City and threaten Grenada.