tured 6; also revolver, some wearing apparel (new); also some boots evidently lately taken from some store, they never having been worn. One of the saddles was recognized by Captain Simpson as being one that he had abandoned while returned from Saltville, it having on it his company mark. Captain Solean returned with his command, having seen nothing.

List of articles captured; Six horses; 1 Colt revolver; 3 saddles and bridles; 2 large saddle-bags (1 new); coat and pantaloons (new); 2 pairs boots (new); 2 horses killed.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHARLES E. SMITH,

Lieutenant-Colonel Eleventh Michigan Cavalry, Commanding Scout.

Colonel S. B. BROWN,

Eleventh Michigan Cavalry, Commanding Regiment.

JANUARY 16-FEBRUARY 20, 1865.-Scouts about Franklin, Tenn.

Reports of Lieutenant Colonel Alvin Matzdorff, Seventh-fifth Pennsylvania Infantry.

HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES,
Franklin, Tenn., February 11, 1865.

GENERAL: I have the honor to submit to you herewith the report of two scouting expeditions ordered by me to clair the neighborhood of the bushwhackers which infest it:

On the 16th of January I ordered Lieutenant C. Haserodt, with a squad of my mounted infantry, to secure the arrest of John Burke, a notorious bushwhacker, who was reported to be with his gang on the Wilson pike, fifteen miles from Franklin. At the house of a Mrs. Cherry Lieutenant Haserodt fell in with five mounted men, who he ordered to surrender, three f whom did so at once, but the other two took refuge in the house. On asking Mrs. Cherry whether she had seen said Burke she replied had not, "but you are welcome to search my house." Lieutenant Haserodt then ordered Sergeant Mehring and two men to search the upper part of the house, but before they reached the upper rooms they were fired upon and Sergeant Mehring was fatally wounded.* Burke and another man by the name of Birch were both wounded, but Burke made his escape though a window in the back part of the house. Another of the bands was killed instantly . After the affray Lieutenant Haserodt ordered the inmates to leave the house and set fire to the house.

On the 29th of January I ordered Lieutenant Briggs to proceed with twenty mounted men to the neighborhood of Spring Hill, Maury County, in search of a band of guerrillas who were reported to be there stealing horses and committing other depredations. Lieutenant Briggs with his men struck their trail three miles east of Spring Hill and followed it up country to Leiper's Creek, in Williamson County. They came up with Bob Riggs'gang (twelve in number) at Edmund Dodson's, on Leiper's Creek. They fled at the approach of my men, who pursued them three miles up the creek and succeed in killing the leader, Bob Riggs, and another of his band, whose name could not be ascertained. I regret that the small force at my disposal and the