WAR DEPARTMENT, July 11, 1862.

Hon. ANDREW JOHNSON:

MY DEAR SIR: Yours of yesterday is received. Do you not, my good friend, perceive that what you ask is simply to put you in command in the West? I do not suppose you desire this. You only wish to control in your own localities; but this you must know may derange all other posts. Can you not and will you not have a full conference with General Halleck? Telegraph him, and meet him at such place as he and you can agree upon. I telegraph him to meet you and confer fully with you.

A. LINCOLN.

WAR DEPARTMENT, July 11, 1862.

Major-General HALLECK, Corinth:

Governor Johnson, at Nashville, is in great trouble and anxiety about a raid into Kentucky. The Governor is a true and a valuable man - indispensable to us in Tennessee. Will you please get in communication with him, and have a full conference with him before you leave for here? I have telegraphed him on the subject.

A. LINCOLN.

CORINTH, July 11, 1862.

Major-General BUELL:

I want to hear from you.

H. W. HALLECK.

HUNTSVILLE, July 11, 1862.

Major-General HALLECK:

I appreciate the importance of moving promptly, though it is idle to suppose that the enemy, with his railroad communication complete and our line difficult and broken, will not always be able to anticipate us at any important point. I regret that it is necessary to explain the circumstances which must make my progress seem slow, though perhaps it is not to be expected that they should otherwise be understood. I understand what you have given me to do. If permitted I expect to accomplish it without any unnecessary delay and in such a manner as neither to jeopardize my army nor its honor to trifle with the lives of loyal citizens betrayed to the vengeance of their enemies by a promised protection and hurried abandonment. The advance on Chattanooga must be made with the means of acting in force; otherwise it will either fail or prove a profitless and transient prize. The railroad communication as far as Stevenson must be surely established from that point. The transportation must at first be by wagons for 25 miles. The river must be crossed by a pontoon bridge, which I am now preparing. It is not possible to establish the requisite communication by any means of ferrying which we can provide. These arrangements are being pushed forward as industriously as possible. The troops are moving forward to the terminus of the railroad without any unnecessary delay, and one division has already arrived there. It ought to be borne in mind that they have had a march of about 200 miles to make, with a large train, in hot weather, crossing a wide river by a ferry. The reports of General