HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND, Murfreesborough, January 7, 1863.

General R. B. MITCHELL, Commanding Post, Nashville:

The general commanding directs you to send a gunboat up the Cumberland, with orders to destroy every ferry-boat, barge, or other means of crossing as high up as Carthage.

C. GODDARD,
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, January 7, 1863.

Major-General WRIGHT, Cincinnati, Ohio:

The first and second of yours of the 30th approved and authorized by the President. The third and fourth will be, should they become necessary. Use your authority with great discretion. You had better attend to it yourself personally.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

FORT MONROE, January 7, 1863.

His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN:

The editorial in the Richmond Examiner of the 6th says:

We have to perform an unwelcome task this morning, and to chill the glow of triumph which the intelligence hitherto received from Murfreesborough has imparted to every patriotic heart. A reverse, the causes and extent unknown, has been suffered by the army under General Bragg, &c.

It adds:

It must be confessed that a good deal of fortitude is required to support so painful a disappointment with equanimity.

The following period in the same editorial shows the extent of the feeling the rebel defeat has produced:

So far the news has come in what may be called the classical style of the Southwest. When the Southern army fights a battle, we first hear that it has gained one of the most stupendous victories on record; that regiments from Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, &c., have exhibited an irresistible and superhuman valor unknown in history this side of Sparta and Rome. As for the generals, they usually get all their clothes shot off, and replace them with a suit of glory. The enemy, of course, is simply annihilated. Next day more dispatches come, still very good, but not quite so good as the first. The telegrams of the third day are invariably such as to make a mist, a muddle, and a fog of the whole affair.

The only news I can find in the same paper in regard to Vicksburg is a dispatch of the 2nd, from that place, stating that there had been skirmishing the whole day, but that no general engagement was expected until the arrival of McClernand and Sherman with the balance of the Yankee army. It expresses a confidence of holding Vicksburg against any force the Federals can bring against it. It adds:

This morning our forces advanced against the enemy, who were erecting works on the lake, causing them to evacuate their position, leaving 50 stand of arms, 9 prisoners, and all their implements for erecting fortifications. Our forces now occupy the whole country bordering on the lake, the enemy having returned with their transports and gone down the Yazoo. The enemy have left Chickasaw Bayou, and are reported going on their transports to Snyder's Bluff, on the Yazoo, where it is supposed they will make an attempt to storm our works. Our forces are well advised of their movements.

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.