me, as he would be too late to join Bragg. Hope there has been no serious misunderstanding. Rosecrans is said to be crossing the Tennessee. Enemy in West Tennessee concentrating at Bolivar in my front. I go to Grand Junction to-morrow with last of troops.

You directed me to send forward with General Breckinridge all stragglers and convalescents collected here and fit for active service in the field. As General Breckinridge's destination is changed I shall send forward all efficient men belonging to the Army of the Mississippi and now in camp here armed and equipped and temporarily organized into companies for the march. I shall send them by Morgantown and Pikeville to Sparta, and thence by the road you have taken. About 1,200 will be ready to start by to-morrow; a like number will I hope be ready in a few days. On my application to the Adjutant and Inspector General he ordered twelve or thirteen companies of Partisan Rangers from the interior of Georgia to report to you here. Only four companies have arrived. If I receive no orders from you as to what disposition to make of them I shall send a part, perhaps all of them, to the front. They will need but little transportation and that can be supplied from that collected here for General Breckinridge. I have had nothing official from your headquarters since your letter of the 4th instant.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

SAM. JONES,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE,
Knoxville, Tenn., September 10, 1862.

General BRAXTON BRAGG, Chattanooga, Tenn.:

GENERAL: I have just received yours of the 7th instant. I have not been able to learn General Breckinridge's movements. I telegraphed General Jones your message to him. I shall let him have Smith's Legion, though it cripples me very much. I have just returned from General Stevenson's headquarters. With General Stevenson I made a careful reconnaissance of the enemy's position at Cumberland Gap. We cannot storm the place. They are strengthening their works, and can subsist for a considerable time from the country north of the mountain unless the Gap is invested on the north side. Independer of the command of General Stevenson I have only troops sufficient to guard our depot and the railroad bridges and a few Partisan Rangers, Colonel Smith's Legion the best of them. The Legion is now moving to Big Creek Gap to co-operate with General Stevenson to cut off a force blockading Big Creek and Rogers' Gaps. I believe the Gap would soon fall if I had men to invest the north side. I should have done so if I could have collected 3,000 men. Your calling on me for Smith's Legion leaves me hardly able to guard the different gaps. General Smith has not been heard from since his Richmond victory, when he urged me to send him re-enforcements. I have organized some 1,500 old soldiers (joining their regiments) that I shall forward as soon as armed and Big Creek Gap opened or that I can safely send them by the Jamestown route. Rest assured, general, that I shall do all I can to forward your wishes. The situation of East Tennessee is not satisfactory. I fear trouble.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. S. BRADFORD,

Assistant Adjutant-General.