nation required officers of reliable character to command in Kentucky at this particular juncture in the affairs of the State.

General Gillmore will be assigned to the command of the Central District of the State, and Colonel Gilbert will command the most reliable brigade of his force, and neither should suffer in their prospects of advancement by being kept back from the field.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. G. WRIGHT,

Major-General, Commanding.

Major-General H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief, Washington, D. C.

No. 2. Report of Brig. General Samuel P. Carter, U. S. Army, commanding expedition.

LEXINGTON, KY., January 9, 1863.

GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of the expeditionary force to East Tennessee, which was intrusted to my command.

Although a movement on East Tennessee was proposed as early as November 25 last, it was not until December 19 that arrangements were completed and the necessary order given for the movement of the troops. It was hoped that the force to be sent on this hazardous, but most important, expedition would have been much larger than that which the commander of the department felt could be detached for such service when the final arrangements were made. My original design was to have divided the force into two columns, and strike the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad at two points at the same time, distant 100 miles apart, and, by moving toward the center, have completely destroyed the road for that distance; but, on the junction of the different detachments, I found that the number was too small to risk a division, and i was reluctantly compelled to keep them united, or within easy supporting distance during the whole of my operations.

Having given orders for the junction of the forces, consisting of two battalions Second Michigan Cavalry, Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, the Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry, Major Russell, and First Battalion Seventh Ohio Cavalry, Major Reaney, near the mouth of Goose Creek, Clay County, Kentucky, I left this place with my staff on the 20th ultimo for that point. By your order, Colonel Charles J. Walker, of Tenth Kentucky Cavalry, was placed in command of the cavalry brigade, and I here take occasion to tender my thanks for the appointment, and to express my commendation of the manner in which Colonel Walker discharged his arduous duties. The troops were ordered to move without baggage, with ten days' rations and a hundred rounds of ammunition, but, as it was feared some difficulty would be met with in obtaining forage a supply train was ordered to proceed some 60 miles on the route, and then transfer forage and rations to a train of pack mules.

On the 22nd ultimo I came up with the two battalions Second Michigan and Ninth Pennsylvania at McKee, Jackson County, Kentucky, where we were detained a day waiting for the arrival of the supply train and pack saddles.

On the 25th ultimo we effected a junction with the remainder of the