PULASKI, [January] 26, 1865.

Major-General THOMAS:

Dispatch of 22nd just received.* Before you left Nashville I had sent the Eight Michigan, via Murfreesborough, Shelbyville, and Fayetteville, to this place, with orders to scout the country thoroughly. This regiment arrived here a few days since. Previous to its arrival I had only about 200 mounted men, the Sixteenth Illinois, General Wilson having taken from me two mounted regiments, leaving me a force entirely inadequate for my purpose. I shall send a regiment forward New Market and Salem on the 27th. By that time I will have had clothing issued, of which the men are in need. I have not heard of a guerrilla west of this place, though I will send out the remaining mounted force in that direction. A single courier arrived yesterday from General Wilson's headquarters, and trains without escort and small parties have been passing almost every day without being molested.

R. W. JOHNSON,

Brigadier-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. SIXTH DIV., CAV. CORPS, MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, Numbers 14.
Pulaski, Tenn., January 26, 1865.

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II. Colonel Mix. Eight Michigan Cavalry, will march with his regiment on Saturday at daylight, the 28th instant, for Fayetteville. At Fayetteville he will be joined by 200 men of the Fifth Tennessee Cavalry marching from Shelbyville. This detachment is ordered to be here by 4 p. m. Colonel Mix will unite this force with his own, and will then patrol the country in the neighborhood of Fayetteville, New Market, and Winchester, and the triangle of country embraced between these points. He is expected to clear this country of guerrillas and such straggling parties of Confederate cavalry as may be found there, and will govern his operations by what information he can from time to time obtain from citizens or any other source, bearing in mind that what is desired is not the mere dispersion of those forces, but to capture or kill them, and, if guerrillas, they are not to be captured. He will take with him as much bread, sugar, coffee, and salt as the men can carry without too much encumbering the horses. The country must be relieved upon for rations when this gives out. All serviceable horses, and none but serviceable horses, will be impressed. Colonel Mix must see that in all cases receipts are given for property taken, specifying whether the owner is loyal or disloyal. Indiscriminate pillage must not be permitted. Except one ambulance, no wheels will accompany the regiment.

III. Lieutenant Colonel R. W. Smith, commanding Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry, will detach a force of seventy men or thereabouts from his regiment and send them in command of an efficient and reliable officer to Lawrencerburg, thence to Lexington, and thence crossing the country to the east to Sugar, thence returning to this point. The command will carry bread, sugar, salt, and coffee for five days. They must depend upon the country for meat rations. No wheels will accompany the expedition. The purpose of the expedition is to scout the country thoroughly. All guerrillas will be killed at sight. All stragglers of

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* See Vol. XLV, Part II, p. 626.

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