HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE,
Memphis, Tenn., November 24, 1864.

Bvt. Major General J. H. WILSON,

Chief of Cavalry, Commanding Cavalry Corps, Nashville, Tenn.:

GENERAL: Your letter by hand of General Knipe is received. All the men belonging to General Hatch's division, with train and camp and garrison equipage, left here some days ago for Nashville. The other division has been engaged in Missouri, under Colonel Winslow and was sent in pursuit of Price, and I understand was ordered to press down as far as Fort Smith, and return here through Arkansas. As soon as the division reaches here it will be sent to Nashville, with such detachments as are still here, retaining here only sufficient for patrols and pickets. As to the exact whereabouts of this division now, I have no information, but suppose it is somewhere between here and Fort Smith, and I think it highly probable that it will be fifteen or twenty days before it reaches here. When it does reach here it will be pretty thoroughly used up, as it has now been in the field and almost constantly marching for over eighty days. You will thus see that there is no possible chance for their being placed at your disposal in an efficient shape for some time, but we shall do all we can to hurry them up.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. C. WASHBURN,

Major-General.

HDQRS. CAVALRY CORPS, MIL. DIV. OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Nashville, Tenn., November 24, 1864.

Brigadier General ED. M. McCOOK,

Commanding First Cavalry Division:

GENERAL: I telegraphed yesterday to General Wilson regarding your leave of absence, but have received no answer. The probability is that he has not received my dispatch. General Wilson left Nashville on the 21st, to direct the operations of the cavalry in the movements that are taking place. How long he will be absent it is impossible to say. Major Price, assistant inspector-general of the Cavalry Bureau, was requested to ask that you might designate the two regiments in your division which you prefer to have transferred out. The general directed me before he left to transfer two regiments out of your division and one Indiana regiment into it. In a private letter to Captain Mordecai, the ordnance officer at Louisville remarks that it is difficult to find out from the commanding officers the number of equipments and arms that they have on hand. General Thomas has directed General Watkins to hurry his command through as rapidly as possible. We are sending from this place all the cavalry we can collect to Columbia, to report to General Wilson. I inclose order designating the flags to be adopted for the Cavalry Corps.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. B. BEAUMONT,

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.