PADUCAH, December 9, 1864.

Brigadier General W. D. WHIPPLE:

GENERAL: I have just received reliable information that Lyon and Cheatham have crossed the Tennessee River at Danville bridge yesterday; their forces number from 2,000 to 2,500 with six pieces of artillery.

Respectfully,

S. MEREDITH,

Brigadier-General.

LEXINGTON, December 9, 1864-8 p.m.

Brevet Major-General BURBRIDGE,

Bean's Station:

General Meredith telegraphs that he has reliable information Lyon's command, 2,000 men and six pieces of artillery, are constructing boats to cross the Tennessee, twenty miles above Fort Heiman, and strike for the Green River bridge. He had sent a gun-boat to reconnoiter. I have notified General Ewing. Do not put much faith in Lyon's ability to cross the Tennessee and Cumberland. Have heard nothing from Nashville to-day.

J. BATES DICKSON,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. FIRST DIVISION, MILITARY DIST. OF KENTUCKY,
Lexington, Ky., December 9, 1864.

Lieutenant-Colonel FERGUSON,

Thirty-ninth Kentucky Infantry Volunteers:

You will proceed to the front and report to General Burbridge with all the men you can gather up belonging to any regiment with General Burbridge able for duty. You have full power to take all men of those regiments from Lexington and Camp Nelson (except telegraph guards), and will use your best exertions to reach to general with all the men possible.

By command of Brigadier-General McLean:

J. S. BUTLER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. FIRST DIVISION, MILITARY DIST. OF KENTUCKY,
Lexington, Ky., December 9, 1864.

Adjt. General D. W. LINDSEY,

Frankfort, Ky.:

I am directed by Brigadier-General McLean to inform you that fifty of the force of 100 men at Georgetown have been ordered to report to you at Frankfort. You can impress horses from the country for the temporary purpose of mounting a company or so, in order to protect the railroad and country from guerrillas, the horses to be returned to the owners as soon as the object is accomplished. Proper receipts should be given by an officer, and the horses promptly returned and the receipts taken up. If you think proper, you can mount two companies Forty-