and spring. I have directed the chief of cavalry to make requisition on the Cavalry Bureau for horses required in that branch of service.

U. S. GRANT,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE,
Nashville, December 21, 1863.

Major General S. A. HURLBUT,

Commanding Sixteenth Army Corps, Memphis, Tennessee:

Having relieved Chattanooga and Knoxville, the Army of the Tennessee is now along the Tennessee River below Bridgeport, headquarters near Huntsville. In person I will go home (Lancaster, Ohio) for Christmas, and will then come via Cairo to Memphis. I will have month's leisure to work on the river. I want you to hold 5,000 men ready for me for an expedition. I may have to break up Corinth and that road. Send me by January 1 (care of Admiral Porter) a full return of all the troops in your district.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE,
Nashville, December 21, 1863.

Major General JOHN A. LOGAN,

Commanding Fifteenth Army Corps, Bridgeport:

DEAR GENERAL: I got here last night, stay over to-day, and go to Louisville to-morrow. I have seen General Grant, and General Dodge is also here. I think I can see the drift of events for a short time ahead, and you should know them. I will go home for Christmas (the first for more than twenty years), but on the 2nd of January will start for Cairo, and in concert with Admiral Porter must do something to check the boldness of our enemy in attacking boats on the Mississippi.

To secure the safety of the navigation of the Mississippi River I would slay millions. On that point I am not only insane, but mad. Fortunately, the great West is with me there. I think I see one or two quick blows that will astonish the natives of the South, and will convince them that, thought to stand behind a big cotton-wood and shoot at a passing boat is good sport and safe, it may still reach and kill their friends and families hundreds of miles off. For every bullet shot at a steam-boat, I would shoot a thousand 30-pounder Parrots into even helpless towns on Red, Ouachita, Yazoo, or wherever a boat can float or soldier march. Well, I think in all January and part of February I can do something in this line.

In the mean time, Dodge will go on in concert with the contractor in putting the Nashville and Decatur road in order. You will have to take that from Stevenson to Decatur, so timing your work that you will be done as soon as he. We will then have a triangle of railroad, Nashville the apex and the base along the Tennessee. You are to repair and hold this base, gather forage and supplies, and be ready for the next great move. A part of this contemplates