Numbers 253.-Return of casualties in Forrest's cavalry for November and December, 1864.

Numbers 254.-Brigadier General James R. Chalmers, C. S. Army, commanding Cavalry Division, of operations November 17-December 27, 1864.

Numbers 255.-Brigadier General Lawrence S. Ross, C. S. Army, commanding Ross' brigade, of operations October 24-December 27, 1864.

Numbers 256.-Brigadier General Philip D. Roddey, C. S. Army, commanding District of North Alabama, of operations December 1-15, 1864.

Numbers 257.-Colonel Alfred A. Russell, Fourth Alabama Cavalry, of operations October 26, 1864-January 17, 1865.

Numbers 258.-Captain Joseph T. Cobb, of November 28, 1864.

Numbers 1.

Reports of Major General George H. Thomas, U. S. Army, commanding Department of the Cumberland.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND,
Eastport, Miss., January 20, 1865.

COLONEL: *

On the 12th of November communication with General Sherman was severed, the last dispatch from him leaving Cartersville, Ga., at 2.25 p. m. on that date. He had started on his great expedition from Atlanta to the seaboard, leaving me to guard Tennessee or to pursue the enemy if he followed the commanding general's column. It was therefore with considerable anxiety that we watched the forces at Florence to discover what course they would pursue with regard to General Sherman's movements, determining thereby whether the troops under my command, numbering less than half those under Hood, were to act on the defensive in Tennessee or take the offensive in Alabama.

The enemy's position at Florence remained unchanged up to the 17th of November, when he moved Cheatham's corps to the north side of the river with Stewart's corps preparing to follow. The same day part of the enemy's infantry said to be Lee's corps, moved up the Lawrenceburg road to Bough's Mill, on Shoal Creek, skirmishing at that point with Hatch's cavalry, and them fell back a short distance to some bluffs, where it went into camp.

The possibility of Hood's forces following General Sherman was now at an end, and I quietly took measures to act on the defensive. Two divisions of infantry under Major General A. J. Smith, were reported on their way to join me from Missouri, which, with several one-year regiments then arriving in the department and detachments collected from points of minor importance would swell my command, when concentrated, to an army nearly as large as that of the enemy. Had the enemy delayed his advance a week or ten days longer, I would have been ready to meet him at some point south of Duck River, but Hood commenced his advance on the 19th, moving on parallel roads from Florence toward Waynesborough, and shelled Hatch's cavalry out of Lawrenceburg on the 22d. My only resource then was to retire slowly toward my re-enforcements, delaying the enemy's progress as much as possible to gain time for re-enforcements to arrive and concentrate.

General Schofield commenced removing the public property from Pulaski preparatory to falling back toward Columbia. Two divisions of Stanley's corps had already reached Lynnville, a point fifteen miles

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*For portion of reports here omitted, relating to operations in North Georgia and North Alabama, see Vol. XXXIX, Part I, p. 584.

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