the trans-Mississippi scheme of Davis. There is a disposition every where on the part of the poor people and the poorer class of returned soldiers toward agrarian riots. I have a telegram of the 7th from Major-General Wilson at Macon stating that it is quite certain that Dick Taylor has capitulated. I had determined to parole Dibrell's division, taking from them their horses and arms, found that General Wilson had already sent a paroling officer from Augusta to attend to their case.

I am, major, yours, respectfully,

WM. J. PALMER,

Colonel and Brevet Brigadier-General, Commanding.

Major BASCOM,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

P. S.-After waiting long enough along the Coasa to catch Davis, or become convinced that further search is useless by my command, I would propose to go to Huntsville, Ala.(if required further in the cotton States), as being the nearest railroad point that I could march to and obtain forage en route.

W. J. P.

HDQRS. CAVALRY DIVISION, DIST. OF EAST TENNESSEE,
Near Coxville, Wills' Valley, May 17, 1865-7 p. m.

MAJOR: I have the honor to report that I have the First Brigade placed along the line of Wills' Valley and the Coasa River from Van Buren, in Will's Valley, to Wilsonville, near the crossing of the Coasa by the Talladega (or Montevallo) Railroad. I shall move in the morning to Guntersville, on the Tennessee River, with one company of the Fifteent Pennsylvania Cavalry, and establish my headquarters there until I hear from you, which I hope to do by the gun-boats on arriving at that point. I find forage much less abundant this line, particularly from Ashville to Van Buren, than I expected, and I think it will be impossible for the brigade to remain many days in its present without thoroughly exhausting the country, whose inhabitants will already find great difficulty in getting food enough to last them until the next crop is gathered. I have communicated with you from Athens, via Dalton, from Athens, via Ashville, from the Chattahoochee, via Dalton, and from Euharlee, via Recasa, since I received any dispatch from your headquarters. In moving through the country I have found it advisable to parole some 5,000 rebel soldiers, who were at or in the vicinity of their homes, many of them unable to report at the paroling stations regularly provided, or ignorant of where they should report. I would respectfully suggest that if necessary an order be issued under the proper date authorizing me to give these paroles, so that there may be no doubt concerning their legitimacy. Until I reached the vicinity of Jacksonville and Goshen, Ala., I met nowhere in the South any disposition toward guerilla warfare. Most of the soldiers had returned peaceably to their plows. At Jacksonville, however, ten of Wheller's, cavalry captured two of my men and stripped them of their horses and arms, and subsequently captured Major Garner, of the Fifteent Pennsylvania, who had remained behind for a short time with four men in Jacksonville to finish paroling some soldiers. They threatened to kill the major, but were prevented by the citizens until the four men came up, when the rebels were driven off with a loss of several horses and one man wounded.