HEADQUARTERS FORREST'S CAVALRY COMMAND,
Jackson, Tenn., April 20, 1864.

Colonel T. M. JACK,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

COLONEL: Governor Harris leaves for department headquarters this morning, and can give the lieutenant-general commanding a statement of affairs as they exist in West Tennessee.

I shall leave here with General Buford as soon as he arrives from Kentucky. A few days' delay have unavoidably occurred, as he had detachments out conscripting and recruiting when he received orders to move southward, and it was necessary to gather all up before leaving. I expect to leave here on 22nd, day after to-morrow, as I think his Kentucky brigade will reach here to-morrow evening.

General Chalmers with three brigades will be at Okolona before this reaches you. Would be glad if the lieutenant-general commanding would send me orders to Tupelo, and designate the point at which he desires I should hold my command until a move is necessary. My scouts report no enemy west of Decatur, and if a move is made into Alabama I am of opinion it will be from Decatur, or between that and Guntersville.

Have ordered my chief quartermaster and commissary to move to Aberdeen, provided they do not receive orders to the contrary from the lieutenant-general commanding, which he will please give should he deem it proper for them to remain at Columbus. I have ordered Major Rambaut, acting commissary of subsistence, to get up some rations for the command at Okolona, as they can be used there or transported by rail to other points. My scouts have just returned from Florence, and report no enemy between that place and Clifton. The force which came to Waterloo has returned at Athens. There are a few scattering companies of tories on the east side of Tennessee River.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

N. B. FORREST,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS FORREST'S CAVALRY,
Jackson, Tenn., April 20, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel THOMAS M. JACK,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

COLONEL: I wrote you on yesterday morning, per Governor Harris, giving you the movements of my command. After his departure, I received through General Chalmers a dispatch countermanding or revoking the orders to move south; as General Chalmers received the orders before they reached me, he sent back Bell's and Richardson's brigades, and orders were immediately sent then to Colonel Neely, commanding Richardson's brigade, to move down toward Memphis and drive the country back to this place, gathering all conscripts and absentees, and Colonel Bell was ordered to Cherryville to begin close to the Mississippi Rive, and moving back to this place, to perform the same service. General Buford, then moving south, was ordered to spread out his Kentucky brigade and sweep the country.

Consequently, with the necessary detachments requisite to be sent out in all directions to protect me against any movement of the en-