country; I, therefore, respectfully suggest his transfer to this department.

I have just had the honor to receive Your Excellency's letter of the 18th instant. I believe the name appended to the notices inclosed to you to be that of Colonel Logan's quartermaster, and, therefore, directed Brigadier General Wirt Adams to have that person arrested for trial.

Most respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. E. JOHNSTON,

General.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS.

MERIDIAN, December 7, 1863.

Major-General Lee reports of the expedition mentioned in my letter of the 26th:

Chased 800 enemy's cavalry from Ripley into Pocahontas on 1st. On 2nd destroyed 2 miles of railroad at Saulsbury, and Forrest passed into Tennessee at Macon. Routed and drove into Wolf River two regiments of Federal cavalry, killing, wounding, and drowning 175, taking 40 prisoners, killing 100 and taking 40 horses. One hundred yards of trestling destroyed between La Fayette and Moscow.

J. E. JOHNSTON.

His Excellency the PRESIDENT,

Richmond.

Numbers 9.

Report of Brigadier General James R. Chalmers, C. S. Army.

HEADQUARTERS CHALMERS' CAVALRY, Near Como, January 16, 1864.

MAJOR: I was ordered by Major-General Lee to move on the 28th of November against some point on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, between La Grange and Memphis, to cover a movement which he expected to make with the brigades of General Ferguson and Colonel Ross, between La Grange and Corinth, the main object of which was to escort General Forrest safely into West Tennessee. A very great and unexpected rise in the Tallahatchee River prevented the movement. A pontoon bridge had been built across the river by Colonel McCulloch, under many difficulties and with great dispatch, but the slough on the south side of the river was swimming and we could not get to the bridge with ammunition wagons and artillery.

About noon on the 28th, I received a dispatch from General Lee, then at New Albany, countermanding the order to move. At 12 m., on the 30th, I received a dispatch from General Lee ordering me to move forward as before directed, and notifying me that he would move on the morning of the 30th from New Albany. The river was still swollen and rising, and it was impossible to cross except at Panola, 30 miles west of me, or at Rocky Ford, 20 miles east. There