NASHVILLE, November 22, 1864.

Major General J. B. STEEDMAN,

Chattanooga:

Major-General Stoneman desires to use Colonel Gibson's regiment, stationed at Loudon and Athens, and the troops at Charleston and Cleveland with his command at Knoxville, provided you can replace them by other troops. I wish you to do this as far as possible, and report to me at once just what you can do.

GEO. H. THOMAS,

Major-General, U. S. Volunteers, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS FIFTEENTH PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY,
Wauhatchie, November 22, 1864.

Major MOE,

Asst. Adjt. General, Headquarters District of the Etowah:

MAJOR: I have the honor to report that all my scouting parties have now returned. Captain Colton reached here to-day, having already reported to you direct all the information he obtained. I place very little confidence in the rumor that Wheeler's headquarters are at Gadsden, or that any considerable portion of his force is in that vicinity or in the direction of the Atlanta railroad. My scouting party of twelve men, under Sergeant Selgrade, would have been apt to get some information to that effect while at Valley Head, if it had been true. I inclose the sergeant's report. The sum of the information obtained by the three scouting parties may be summed up thus: that the bands of local cavalry commanded by Gatewood, Weatherspoon, Davenport, Freeman, and Hammock, the first consisting probably of 75 or 100 men, and all the others together not probably exceeding that number, occupy the lower part of Broomtown and Will's Valleys, whence they send up small scouting parties, numbering from five to twenty men, as far as Trenton, McLemore's Cove, Bailey's Cross Roads, and La Fayette. Except for the damage inflicted upon loyal citizens, they do not appear to be worthy of much consideration. I have a report, also, that Russell has a party of fifty or seventy-five men along this side of the Tennessee River opposite Bellefonte. The rebel squads who come down Lookout Valley appear generally to retire on Sand Mountain.

I am, major, your obedient servant,

WM. J. PALMER,

Colonel, Commanding.

[Inclosure.]

CAMP LOOKOUT, Wauhatchie, November 21, 1864.

Colonel WILLIAM J. PALMER:

SIR: In obedience to orders, I started last Friday morning for Valley Head, via Dougherty's Gap, with twelve men, taking three days' rations; sent a corporal with four men on a by-road leading along the foot of Lookout Mountain with orders to meet me at Trenton. On arriving there myself I called on a man named Harris; learned form him that there had been six rebels there the night previous; tried to get information concerning a by-road leading to Johnson's Crook, but could find nobody who