an opportunity to attack them, give them the devil; if you learn that the force has passed you and are making toward railroad, pursue and kill.

Very respectfully, yours,&c.,

HOBSON,

Brigadier-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE, Bridgeport, Tennessee, November 18, 1863.

(Received 12.40 a.m., 19th.)

Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK,
General-in-Chief:

Dispatch of yesterday received. I was at Chattanooga yesterday, and am now moving the Fifteenth Army Corps up. My troops and animals are fatigued, and I hate to put them up in that desolate gorge, but we will try and make quick work. General Hurlbut's messages vary so much I cannot calculate. I want a good force at Memphis, and a similar one at Eastport, and if the enemy thrusts himself up toward Jackson and Columbus, we should strike inland. My orders to him are to that effect. I will write to him to hold on to Corinth, and, if necessary, to supply it from Hamburg. Indeed, I would prefer that the enemy should scatter in West Tennessee than concentrate in front of this army.

All cavalry disposable by you might be sent to Eastport by water, or, better, still, to General Dodge, who has a handsome force from Pulaski to Decatur, a country abounding in corn and cattle. We now have as many men and animal here as we can feed and handle, but the assemblage of an army about the head of navigation of the Tennessee can be made useful as soon as Bragg is forced back from his threatening position before Chattanooga. We should, with cavalry, strike from Decatur or Eastport at Meridian and Selma. It would paralyze all Mississippi.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General.

LOUISVILLE, November 18, 1863.

Maj. Gen. U. S. GRANT:

Is there no mistake in sending of troops to Eastport now that General Sherman has left? Three regiments of infantry passed here ten days ago, bound for Eastport. Thirteen hundred cavalry passed here this morning for the place; 900 cavalry and one regiment infantry yet to arrive; destination same. Steamer Arizona has returned from Eastport to Cairo with cargo of forage, no one knowing what was to be done after the departure of General Sherman.

R. ALLEN,

Brigadier-General, Quartermaster.

HEADQUARTERS ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH CORPS, Lookout Valley, Tennessee, November 18, 1863.

Brigadier-General EWING,

Commanding Division,near Trenton, Ga.:

Your dispatch of to-day just received. General Hooker directs me to say that unless you have received instructions to the contrary,