HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND,
Nashville, April 29, 1865.

Brigadier General R. W. JOHNSON,

Pulaski:

The dispositions made and orders given your cavalry are judicious and approved. I wish you to do everything in your power to aid the civil authorities in restoring civil law. I have official notification that Johnston surrendered to Sherman on the 26th all troops from the Virginia line to the Chattahoochee.

GEO. H. THOMAS,

Major-General, U. S. Army, Commanding.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. 6TH DIV., CAVALRY CORPS, No. 83.
MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, Pulaski, Tenn., April 29, 1865.

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II. Colonel Butler, commanding First Brigade, will detach a party of fifty men, well mounted and armed, in command of an efficient officer, to scout on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. They will start at an early hour to-morrow morning and move by the most direct and practicable route to Athens, Ala., and from there eastward to the north of Huntsville, striking the railroad at or near Flint River; from thence up the road to Paint Rock Creek. He will take post in the neighborhood of Paint Rock Station for a few days, and scout the country about there for guerrillas. All guerrillas or suspicious persons captured will be turned over to the officer commanding the next garrison, with a written statement of the case. The officer will return at the end of ten days unless in his judgment the interest of the service demands a longer stay in that neighborhood. He will confer with the commanding officer at Athens, Paint Rock, and any other posts or garrisons in whose neighborhood he may come, but will not take orders from any source inconsistent from this order, or which will detain him more than two weeks, which is fixed as the utmost limit of his stay. Returning, he will ascend the valley of Paint Rock Creek as far as may be practicable, and in the line of his march, and crossing the mountain return by the way of New Market, and then to this place by the best route.

In his marches and operations the officer must of course be governed by the whereabouts of the enemy whom he seeks and the condition of supplies in the country, this order being a mere outline. He will take with him three days' rations of bread, sugar, coffee, and salt; a further supply of these rations may be procured at Athens, Huntsville, or Paint Rock. Meat will be procured form the country, and in impressing this, as well as forage or other necessary subsistence stores, the officer will be particular to distress the inhabitants as little as possible, to invariably give receipts, specifying his opinion as to the loyalty of the citizen, and to respect protections given by Brigadier General R. S. Granger, commanding District of Northern Alabama. He will be furnished a copy of this order.

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By command of Brigadier-General Johnson:

E. T. WELLS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.