GENERAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS,

No. 40. Flat Lick, Ky., October 20, 1862.

I. The major-general commanding, having resumed command of the Department of East Tennessee, makes the following disposition of the troops:

The Third Division, Major-General McCown commanding, will remain for the present at Cumberland Gap. The First and Second Divisions, Brigadier-Generals Stevenson and Heth commanding, will proceed via Tazewell and Clinch River to Blain's Cross-Roads. An officer will be immediately sent forward from each division to select camping grounds in that vicinity. McMillan's Station will be the depot from which supplies will be drawn. Division commanders will instruct their quartermasters to collect supplies of forage at that point as speedily as possible and make all arrangements necessary for the reception of the troops.

By command of Major General E. Kirby Smith:

[JNO PEGRAM,]

Chief of Staff.

KNOXVILLE, TENN., October 21, 1862.

Honorable GEORGE W. RANDOLPH:

Your telegram received. I hope and believe our troops will occupy and hold Middle Tennessee. If we do, the wire you mention will be of great service to us. If it is turned over to the Southern Telegraph Company to be sent beyond the Mississippi I fear we shall hear no more of it. I do not think it advisable to take down the wire you refer to.

SAM. JONES,

Major-General.

[Indorsement.]

Inform Mr. St. George Offutt, Acting Postmaster-General, that the wire in Tennessee is considered by General Jones necessary for military operations there.

G. W. R.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE,
Knoxville, Tenn., October 21, 1862.

Brigadier-General FORREST, Murfreesborough, Tenn.:

Your telegram highly gratifying. Keep the enemy hemmed in at Nashville. Keep a sharp lookout on the left for Grant of Rosecrans and in front for Buell's forces. Large re-enforcements are on the way to Murfreesborough.

SAM. JONES,

Major-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. RIGHT WING., ARMY OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Cumberland Gap, Tenn., October 21, 1862.

General WHEELER:

I inclosed you a note yesterday morning from General Polk ordering you, after you have fallen back and made a junction with General Smith