want the mass of available troops over toward Huntsville, and the only question is how to get them there, and feed them when there.

The Tennessee is now in good stage, and Phelps says there is no danger till next summer as far as Eastport, and any day may make it available to Florence. Thence we must haul. I won't waste much more labor on Bear Creek Bridge. I will push up to the station on the hill at Cherokee, and use that as a picket station for a time, but I will take immediate steps to cross a body of troops to Florence and Huntsville, and I want you now to dispose things so we can draw to this end everything of strength. Order every officer and man to his regiment. Any one absent from his military post on any pretext must be made to go to his regiment or make up some work gang. The civil authorities must relieve the military of police duty. The fort must be made impregnable. The railroad must gradually take care of itself, for it is manifest every soldier on our rolls will be needed till the draft comes.

Write to the invalid commander at Saint Louis that I ask a good guard of 150 men at Paducah, another of 150 at Cairo. I want a good assailing force at Columbus, say 2,500 men, all told, to operate back to Paris, Trenton, Jackson, &c., striking eccentrically.

It will take some time to make these changes, and I want you to help me. I like Memphis and the old Mississippi. It is my hobby, but we must needs leave it for a time.

Notify me at once all changes you think should be made to accomplish the end. The corps remain as hitherto (Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth), commanders the same, and we only point east now instead of south, neglecting for a time the river, and exaggerating the valley of the Tennessee from Huntsville up.

I shall favor the free navigation of the Mississippi to all boats of large size capable of carrying a crew capable of self-defense and carrying large through cargoes-to all commerce on a scale that cannot be corrupted by small interests. All chicken'thieving expeditions or cotton-stealing parties to be prosecuted. As to officers, my rule is, if any officer in the service of the United States, while enjoying a salary, makes one cent by way of profit in any manner traceable to his office, he is guilty of a high crime, and should be punished as a criminal. You may mention this incidentally.

Another notion I have: the United States can claim the military service of every able-bodied man in Memphis, and may organize and use them for local defense, and also, in case of necessity, for offense. I shall make no hasty change, but these ideas will gradually unfold.

Yours,

SHERMAN,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Memphis, Tennessee, October 25, 1863.

Brigadier-General DODGE,

Corinth, Miss.:

Ask General Sherman's permission to send force down to Saltillo.

If he agrees, send; but telegraph to Hatch what force you send.

S. A. HURLBUT,

Major-General.