NOVEMBER 12, 1863.-Skirmish near Cumberland Gap, Tennessee

Report of Colonel Wilson C. Lemert, Eighty-sixth Ohio Infantry.

CUMBERLAND GAP, November 13, 1863-7 a. m.

Yesterday, at 5 a. m., I sent a train of 21 wagons 12 miles out the Virginia road for forage, with a guard of 31 men. At 10 a. m., learning that the rebels meditated an attack upon it, I went out with 100 cavalry, arriving just in time to witness the capture of the entire train and guard by a Confederate force under Captains Hurd and Dove, 71 strong. We charged them at once with the saber, completely routing them, recapturing the whole train in good order; recovered all the prisoners. We killed 3, wounded 7, captured 9 prisoners, nearly all their small-arms, and several horses. Captain Dove, commanding Confederate, was mortally wounded. We pursued them 10 miles, scattering them in every direction. I lost a fine horse; was the only damage suffered. The Fourth Battalion, Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, behaved very gallantly, charging finely under a brisk fire, using the saber exclusively. No other news.

W. C. LEMERT,

Colonel, Commanding.

General BURNSIDE.

NOVEMBER 14-17, 1863.-Expedition from Maysville to Whitesburg and Decatur, Ala.

Report of Major J. Morris Young, Fifth Iowa Cavalry, commanding expedition.

CAMP NEAR MAYSVILLE, ALA., November 18, 1863.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to report that, under orders from Colonel W. W. Lowe, temporarily commanding Second Cavalry Division, dated November 13, 1863, instructing me to thoroughly scour the country situated between the Memphis and Charleston Railroad and the Tennessee River from Whitesburg to opposite Decatur, and drive out or capture the marauding rebel bands known to be roving over that country, pressing horses, mules, cattle, sheep, hogs, wheat, &c., and running them across the river for Confederate use; to capture and destroy all boats and ferries on the river from Whitesburg to Decatur; to break up or capture a band of rebels, supposed to be encamped near the Tennessee River, about the mouth of Limestone Creek, and to destroy or render unserviceable a grist and saw-mill in that vicinity and in the service of the rebels, I left camp early on the morning of November 14, with detachments from the Fifth Iowa, Fourth United States, Seventy-second and Seventeenth Indiana-in all, 400 men, and moving by a circuitous route across the mountains, leaving Huntsville to the right, reached Whitesburg at 5 p. m., capturing 2 Confederate soldiers after a lively chase of some 4 miles, a drove of 29 young, fat hogs, and the ferry-boat which had just come over for them. Learning that the island above was used as a rendezvous for captured stock, I detached Lieutenant McCamant, Fifth Iowa Cavalry, and 24 men to proceed with the ferry-boat and search