[CHAP. XLIII.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, December 19, 1863.

Brigadier General J. H. WILSON,

General Grant's Staff, Chattanooga:

Please cause the following regiments to report to me here immediately, for orders to join in our movements: Second Tennessee (Lebanon), Third Tennessee Cavalry, Fifth Kentucky, Twenty-eighth Kentucky Mounted Infantry; last three regiments now at Nashville. Fourth Tennessee Cavalry, at Murfreesborough, and the Eighth Iowa Cavalry, now on the Northwestern Railroad, should also be placed subject to my orders.

W. SOOY SMITH,

Brigadier-General, Chief of Cavalry.

HDQRS. THIRD BRIG., SECOND DIV., 14TH ARMY CORPS,
North Chickamauga, Tennessee, December 19, 1863.

General WHIPPLE,

Chief of Staff:

It becomes my duty to report to the general commanding the condition of many families in this valley who have fathers and brothers in the Union Army. They are absolutely starving. This morning a widow with five children at home to support, and her only grown son in the Union Army, came to my quarters begging for food, stating she had eaten nothing for three days. From the ravenous avidity with which she devoured food set before her, all credited her tale. I relieved her wants, but my power as a brigade commander is very limited, and I call the commanding general's attention to the subject, feeling confident that his humanity will suggest some plan of relief. The obligation of the Government becomes the stronger when we remember their unflinching loyalty, and that the shameful actions of our foragers have taken them from a position of comparative affluence to penury.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

DANL. McCOOK,

Colonel, Commanding Brigade.

[First indorsement.]

Respectfully forwarded for the action of the department commander.

JEF. C. DAVIS,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Division.

[Second indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS FOURTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Chattanooga, December 23, 1863.

Respectfully forwarded, with the suggestion that what is true of the neighborhood of Colonel McCook's camp may be said of all the country around Chattanooga. Humanity demands that something be done for these people.

JOHN M. PALMER,

Major-General, U. S. Army, Commanding.