RICHMOND, December 2, 1863.

Lieutenant General WILLIAM J. HARDEE, Dalton, Ga.:

Your dispatch November 30 received and submitted to the President. What general is in your mind for the command which you decline? It is needless to name Lee, who is now indispensable where he is.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

HEADQUARTERS FOURTH CAVALRY DIVISION, Tunnel Hill, December 2, 1863.

Colonel LYON,
Chief of Staff, Wheeler's Cavalry Corps:

COLONEL: I am just informed by courier from the front, who was sent by Colonel Griffith, Third Kentucky Regiment, that a heavy force of cavalry arrived in Ringgold this evening about sundown; their advance pickets are about one-half a mile this side of that place.

Very respectfully,

J. H. KELLY,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

SPECIAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF TENNESSEE,

No. 60. Dalton, Ga., December 2, 1863.

I. Brig. Gen. St. John R. Liddell, by permission of the President, is relieved from duty in this army, and is permitted to report to the commanding general Trans-Mississippi Department.

* * * * *

By command of General Bragg:

[KINLOCH FALCONER,]

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE,

No. 214. Dalton, Ga., December 2, 1863.

Upon renewed application to the President, his consent has been obtained for the relinquishment of the command of this army. It is accordingly transferred to Lieutenant-General Hardee.

The announcement of this separation is made with unfeigned regret. The associations of more than two years, which bind together a commander and his trusted troops, cannot be severed without deep emotion. A common cause and dangers shared on the many hardfought fields from Pensacola to Chickamauga have cemented bonds which time even can never impair.

The circumstances which render this step proper will be appreciated, however, by every good soldier and true patriot, and the last appeal the general has to make to the gallant army which has so long and so nobly sustained him, is to give to his successor that cordial and generous support so essential to the success of our arms. In