MURFREESBOROUGH, January 20, 1863.

Brigadier-General MITCHELL, Nashville:

Secretary Welles telegraphed on the 13th:

The western gunboats are under command of Acting Rear-Admiral D. D. Porter, who is now at Vicksburg. You had better communicate with Captain A. M. Pennock, senior naval officer at Cairo, Ill., who will co-operate under general instructions from Department.

You had better represent to the officers commanding the boats at Nashville the injury which may result to the public service from their refusal to co-operate, and tell them that if any ill results follow such refusal the responsibility will rest with them. Have telegraphed to Washington.

ROSECRANS.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, Cincinnati, Ohio, January 20, 1863.

Brigadier General G. W. CULLUM,
Chief of Staff, Headquarters Army, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: In pursuance of the telegraphic instructions of the General-in-Chief, to take care of the line of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, to concentrate on two or three points in Kentucky, to keep down insurrection, and to send all available force to support General Rosecrans, I have ordered to the Department of the Cumberland, under the command of Major General G. Granger, twenty regiments of infantry, four regiments of cavalry, and four batteries of artillery. They will move as soon as transportation can be provided, concentrating at Louisville, and proceeding thence via the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers to Nashville. To march over the country at this time would be almost an impossibility, owing to the condition of the roads and the inclemency of the weather, and would result in long delays and the breaking down of men and animals. In sending this force, which will number somewhere about 14,000 effective men, I have drawn four regiments from the Kanawha, leaving seven there, and have taken from Central Kentucky about half of the force, leaving behind one division of infantry and about three raw regiments of cavalry, counting all the fragments. A portion of the force hitherto employed in guarding the Louisville and Nashville Railroad has also been taken, but the garrison left on the road will, I think, be adequate to its protection during the remainder of the winter and the early spring, as until then, when the roads become again in condition to travel, no raids in sufficient force to overcome our garrison will, I believe, be attempted. For similar reasons, I believe Central Kentucky and the valley of the Kanawha to be secure with the force left there.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. G. WRIGHT,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, Cincinnati, Ohio, January 20, 1863.

Major General GORDON GRANGER,

Commanding Army of Kentucky, Cincinnati, Ohio:

GENERAL: The following named troops are to be sent to the Department of the Cumberland, to operate with the forces in that department: First, the infantry division under the command of Brigadier-General Baird; second, the Eighteenth and Twenty-fourth Regiments Kentucky