HUNTSVILLE, April 21, 1864

Brigadier General W. Q. GRESHAM,

Cairo, Ill.:

General Hurlbut reports Forrest passing south through La Grange. He has probably made his escape. You will come up the Tennessee River to Clifton and disembark your command and await further orders. Telegraph me when you start from Cairo.

JAS. B. McPHERSON,

Major-General, Commanding.

ATHENS, ALA.,

April 21, 1864

Lieutenant Colonel C. S. SHELDON,

Eighteenth Missouri Volunteers:

March to Decatur, Ala., reporting to Brigadier General J. C. Veatch. By order of Brigadier General G. M. Dodge:

J. W. BARNES,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

ATHENS, April 21, 1864

General SWEENY:

Reports are current here that General Forrest with a large force is crossing the river at or near Eastport. You will send the Seventh Illinois in that direction to ascertain and report the facts. Have them start to-night, and report all the news to the nearest point on the railroad, to be telegraphed to headquarters. One battalion of the Ninth Ohio Cavalry is now in the vicinity of Florence.

By order of General Dodge:

GEO. E. SPENCER,

Colonel, &c.

CAIRO, April 21, 1864-7 p.m.

(Received 11 p.m.)

SECRETARY OF WAR:

General Corse, who was sent by General Sherman to recall General A. J. Smith's command from Red River, has returned. Our loss is 4,000 men, 16 guns, and over 200 wagons. Banks returned to Grand Ecore badly injured. He refused to return Smith's command. The naval force is caught in low water with shoals above and below.

M. BRAYMAN,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Memphis, Tenn., April 21, 1864.

Colonel I. G. KAPPNER,

2nd U. S. Heavy Artillery (Colored), Commanding Fort Pickering:

SIR: I have been directed to inform you that a committee appointed by the Congress of the United States to investigate the