[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS LEFT WING, SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Iuka, Miss., November 4, 1863.

Colonel AUGUST MERSY, Eastport:

Colonel Phillips will report to you with the division train to-night. You will take charge of the train, guard it, and cross it with your brigade, and Colonel Phillips will be crossed as soon as he is ready, having the preference to all others. As soon as he is over he will follow the written instructions I have given him, which he will show you.

By order of Brig. Gen. G. M. Dodge:

J. W. BARNES,
Lieutenant and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

KNOXVILLE, November 4, 1863.

Major-General GRANT:

We have no steam-boats. We have one under way but will not be done for several weeks. I have a first-rate cavalry commander in Brigadier-General Sanders, who made the raid into East Tennessee last June. Line between here and Louisville not been working for three days. Will send full telegraph to-night. Has Sherman arrived?

A. E. BURNSIDE,

Major-General.

KNOXVILLE, November 4, 1863.

Major-General GRANT:

Our cavalry is very much broken down, but still we can organize a raiding party of from 1,200 to 1,500 men with a few pieces of artillery, if it is thought desirable. I proposed a formidable raid into Georgia soon after I arrived here, but General Halleck said that distant raids were not in contemplation at that time. I have some first-rate cavalry commanders.

The situation remains about the same as when I last telegraphed you. We hold to Kingston and to the Watauga River in the east, and to the line of the Little Tennessee River on the south. The forces are disposed about as they were in my last. By Monday next I hope to have a pontoon bridge over the Tennessee River, just below the mouth of the Little Tennessee, and one over the Clinch at Kingston. Boats are being made very rapidly, both at Lenoir's and at Kingston.

I have not thought it advisable to move any heavy force to Kingston up to this time, thinking it preferable to hold a considerable force at Lenoir's with a view to crossing again should an opportunity offer. If you think I am holding too many troops in the eastern part of the State, I can easily withdraw them and hold the position with a smaller force; but I am satisfied that presence of the force in this section holds a very large number of the enemy in front of the salt-works, which would be relieved for a movement in this direction or in Virginia to re-enforce Lee were we to weaken our force there.