HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND, Chattanooga, December 18, 1864.

Colonel WILLIAM J. PALMER,
Commanding Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, Wauhatchie:

Reported that General Thomas has again defeated Hood, with a loss of 2,000 prisoners and 30 guns. The news comes from Nashville, but not officially.

SOUTHWARD HOFFMAN,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

NASHVILLE, TENN., December 18, 1864.

Captain H. M. CIST,

General Thomas' Headquarters:

In obedience to your telegram to General Miller, I have directed Colonel Matzdorff to proceed with the Seventy-fifth Pennsylvania to Franklin, to occupy its old post there and in block-houses. The One hundred and seventy-fifth Ohio occupied some of the block-houses this side of Columbia.

B. H. POLK,

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

NASHVILLE, December 18, 1864.

Brigadier-General WHIPPLE:

Captain Laporte, assistant quartermaster at Murfreesborough, is here with twenty wagons loaded with forage. Will it be safe for him to go through to that place with a guard of sixty-men?

B. H. POLK,

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND, In the Field, December 18, 1864.

Major B. H. POLK,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Nashville:

Yours received. General Steedman leaves Franklin for Murfreesborough with command to-morrow morning. Captain Laporte, with train, can go under his charge.

WM. D. WHIPPLE,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

CLARKSVILLE, TENN., December 18, 1864-1 p. m.

(Received 11.30 p. m.)

Honorable GIDEON WELLES,

Secretary of the Navy:

The active naval patrol of the Mississippi, preventing the rebel armies west of that river from crossing to join Hood, as required by Jeff. Davis, must have had an influential bearing on the successful result of