HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND, INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, November 23, 1863-10 p.m.

GENERAL: Nothing of importance except heavy camp fires in Chattanooga Valley, extending clear back to the Nickajack road, as if troops had come down the mountain.

The following was signaled from Lookout Mountain:

Maj. D. H. POOLE:

What is the position of things on the right?

JACKSON.

J. C. McKIBBIN,
Colonel.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND, Chattanooga, November 23, 1863-10 p.m.

Major-General HOOKER,

Lookout Valley:

If Woods' division does not get across the river by daybreak, he is ordered to report to you, and in that event the general commanding department directs that you endeavor to take the point of Lookout Mountain.

J. J. REYNOLDS,

Major-General, Chief of Staff.

HDQRS. 14TH ARMY CORPS, DEPT. OF THE CUMBERLAND, Chattanooga, November 23, 1863-10.50 p.m.

Maj. General JOSEPH J. REYNOLDS,
Chief of Staff, Department of the Cumberland:

GENERAL: The firing heard when I left headquarters was only a few shots on Baird's front. Baird informed me that before receiving the order to close to the left on Sheridan, he was in that position. After leaving him I rode around the line of pickets on my front. The officer in command of the advance post immediately to right of Rossville road reports the movement of wagons on his front, but could give no information as to the direction they were moving. He said, "They are massing troops on our front; I heard distinctly the order, 'close in mass.'" The officer in command of a detachment of the Sixteenth and Nineteenth Regulars reports the felling of trees by the enemy near the base of Lookout Mountain. From the direction he pointed in giving the information, they may be blocking the road around the point of the mountain.

Very respectfully,

JOHN M. PALMER,

Major-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. THIRD BRIG., SECOND DIV., 14TH ARMY CORPS, North Chickamauga Creek, Tennessee, November 23, 1863.

Major-General REYNOLDS,

Chief of Staff:

SIR: I have the honor to report that a rebel picket, on the opposite side of the river, called across to one of my pickets, and asked