As you are well aware as a cavalry officer, detached bodies of men on distant service frequently commit these wrongs. It is, for example, reported to me that two women, residing in McNairy County, have been shot by the command of one Wilson because their husbands were in the Union service. If I obtain any accurate information of the parties, I shall forward their names to you for that speedy justice which you promise.

My orders are positive, forbidding pillaging of any kind or any interference with non-combatants, except so far as may be necessary to submit men and horses in case they are removed from their sources of supply, and the impressment of animals for military purposes.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. A. HURLBUT,

Major-General, U. S. Army.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. LEFT WING, 16TH ARMY CORPS,

Numbers 40.
Pulaski, Tennessee, December 16, 1863.

I. In accordance with the orders of Major General U. S. Grant, Perry Nicks, of Lewis County, Tennessee, having been damaged by guerrillas, citizens, &c., to the amount of $800, it is hereby ordered that an assessment to that amount be made upon the known rebels of that county, and collected in money, cotton, or stock, and turned over to Mr. Nicks. A full account and report of the transaction under this order will be made to these headquarters. Major Murphy, of Fifth Tennessee Cavalry, is requested to carry out this order.

* * * * * *

By order of Brigadier General G. M. BARNES,

Lieutenant and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Chattanooga, Tennessee, December 17, 1863.

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

Washington, D. C.:

Sherman's command has just returned from East Tennessee. There are left there now, besides the force Burnside had, Granger with about 11,000 infantry and artillery and Elliott's division of cavalry.

This will be as much force as can be subsisted for the present and I think abundantly sufficient to keep the enemy from making any inroad, and possibly to drive him entirely out. The rains have already set in, making it almost impossible to subsist the army at any distance from steam-boat landings or railroad depots. To avoid all trouble and to economize transportation over the railroad, I have ordered Sherman to Bellefonte. He will there be able to supply all his forage from the country and nearly all his bread and meat. All the cavalry will be so disposed as to draw forage and most of their rations from the country. By this means and with the use of the Nashville and Decatur road, which I hope will be ready by February 1, I expect to be able to accumulate a large magazine of supplies