WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, November 5, 1862.

Major-General WRIGHT,

Cincinnati, Ohio:

If you find,as reported in your letter of October 25*, that 20,000 or any less number of troops can be spared from Kentucky, they will be sent down the Mississippi River without delay.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

HEADQUARTERS FOURTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Bowling Green, November 5, 1862.

Major-General McCOOK,,

Via Mitchellsville and courier line:

Dispatch received. It is desirable that you communicate with General Crittenden, and move up quiet and steady. We hope to cut off retreat, push forward strong reconnaissance, and open communication with Nashville as soon as possible. Rations will be pushed forward as soon as possible. The depot is established at Mitchellsville; 150,000 rations on way from Louisville.

By order of Major-General Rosecrans:

ARTHUR C. DUCAT,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Acting Chief of Staff.

BOWLING GREEN, November 5, 1862.

Major-General WRIGHT:

You should occupy London and Somerset as soon as possible. A man named Crow, living in Nicholasville, will deliver your subsistence at those points for 75 cents per 100 pounds. Jamestown or Norman's Landing, 6 miles thence on the river, is also point of occupation of considerable importance. See how soon the work can be accomplished.

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE OHIO,
Nashville, November 5, 1862.

Brigadier-General NEGLEY,

Commanding Post, Nashville:

GENERAL: I have the honor to communicate the following, and agree with my informant that it would be proper to communicate with General Rosecrans, or his officer in advance, to push forward re-enforcements: Major Lewis (formerly General Jackson's private secretary) called to inform me (having been to your office without seeing you) that in a conversation held half an hour since (11.30 a.m.) with one of the most respectable citizens of the town, a secessionist and late professor in the medical college, he said that the city was to be attacked by a large force, amply sufficient to take the place, and specified that the fort on Saint Cloud Hill (Fort Negley) could be taken by the means hey had at hand; that he seemed to refer to the possession of the hill command-

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* See Series I, Vol. XVI, Part II, p. 643.

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