quiet from Cotton Port to Blythe's Ferry. I here giver you an exact copy of the dispatch from Lieutenant Carr:

WASHINGTON, October 22, 1863.

General SPEARS,

Commanding Brigade:

GENERAL: The rebels are crossing the river at Muddy Creek, 6 miles below Cotton Port. They are infantry. One regiment over now.

Yours, most respectfully,

JOHN CARR,

Lieutenant, Commanding Courier-Line.

Seven men of Lieutenant-Colonel Klein's command are here in camp (left there by him when he left here), and I have started 3 of them to join him at Spence's farm (where I still believe him to be), and to ascertain the truth of the affair. The locality of Spence's farm is in near proximity to the river where Muddy Creek empties in, and is about 10 miles from this place. All is reported quiet along the whole line from Cotton Port to Penny's Ford up to the arrival of Lieutenant Carr's dispatch, which reached here at 7 p.m. I will send dispatches hourly.

Yours, respectfully, &c.,

JOHN B. WELSH,

First Lieutenant and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. NINETY-SECOND ILLINOIS Volunteers, WILDER'S BRIG.,
Harrison's Landing, Tennessee, October 22, 1863-9 p.m

Colonel C. GODDARD,

A. A. G., Dept. of the Cumberland, Chattanooga, Tennessee,:

COLONEL: Mrs. Puckett, a good Union lady living opposite here, came to the bank of the river this evening and reports that the rebels say that they are throwing them against Burnside, and that if they cannot whip him, they cannot hold East Tennessee, and without it they are "gone up." I can vouch that Mrs. Puckett is a good Union lady, and she obtains her information from other Union ladies over the river. She says cavalry and infantry passed up toward Cleveland this afternoon.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

SMITH D. ATKINS,

Colonel Ninety-second Illinois Volunteers.

OFFICE OF PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL OF EAST Tennessee,

Knoxville, Tennessee, October 22, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel L. RICHMOND:

Assistant Adjutant-General, Army of the Ohio:

COLONEL: I have the honor to call the attention of the commanding general to the lawlessness of troops in the vicinity of Strawberry Plains and Mossy Creek. Representations are made to this office that outrages are frequently committed by the soldiers of that vicinity upon the persons and property of unoffending citizens for the alleged reason that they have heretofore manifested-sympathy with the rebellion. The frequent recurrence of these outrages calls