As soon as you shall take position on our right, you will leave Major-General Wharton in command and report in person to the lieutenant-general commanding.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEORGE WM. BRENT,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

RICHMOND, December 5, 1863.

Hon. Z. B. VANCE,

Raleigh, N. C.:

Please send the following order to Colonel J. B. Palmer, who relieved General Vance:

Proceed immediately with your command to Knoxville and report to General Longstreet for duty.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

[Same to Colonel J. B. Palmer, Asheville, N. C.]

SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE,

No. 289. Richmond, December 5, 1863.

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VI. Brig. Gen. R. B. Vance will proceed with his command to Knoxville, Tennessee, and report to Lieutenant General J. Longstreet, commanding, &c., for duty.

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By command of the Secretary of War:

JNumbers WITHERS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

ATLANTA, December 5, 1863.

Lieutenant-Colonel PRESSTMAN, Army of Tennessee:

COLONEL: I desire to call your attention to the importance of establishing at the earliest day possible defenses for the protection of the railroad bridges in the rear of the army against cavalry raids. Experience has shown conclusively that a small closed work located within the minie range of the bridge is decidedly the most reliable protection. Open works and lines of rifle-pits do not give a sense of security to small bodies of troops, such as we must depend upon for the safety of bridges, as the men are liable to panics on the approach of cavalry, apprehending movements to take them in reverse, and will desert their positions at the critical moment. It is desirable that the troops stationed at a bridge should live within the defensive work; and to secure this it is well, when practicable, to have them quartered in common log huts, which can be so placed as to form a part of the work itself, having loop-holes prepared through the outer wall for musketry. In each work it will be well to arrange for a couple of pieces of light artillery, say 6-pounders or light howitzers. For a rough sketch, showing the plan of a work, see the following.*

*Sketch not found.