HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY,
La Vergne, Tenn., December 19, 1862.

Captain D. G. REED, Assistant Adjutant-General, Cavalry:

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to state that, agreeably to instructions, Ii, on the 18th and 19th instant, visited and inspected the line of pickets extending from the Murfreesborough and Nashville pike to the Franklin pike. The chain from the former to the Nolensville pike is well posted, both as to position and continuity, and the vedettes understand and perform their duties well. From the Nolensville pike to Franklin the roads alone are picketed, and the line is kept up by patrols; the length of the line and the small force rendering it impossible to make one continuous line. Around Franklin the pickets are well posted, and, in my opinion, it would be almost impossible for the enemy to advance upon the main guard without timely notice from the outpost.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. E. HILL,

Lieutenant and Aide-de-Camp.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE,

Numbers 20.
Murfreesborough, December 19, 1862.

The following assignment of the general hospitals in the rear of the army is made for the greater convenience and more perfect control of the same:

Patients.

Polk's corps, Rome, Ga.................................... 1,000

Polk's corps, Atlanta, Ga................................. 1,200

Polk's corps, Chattanooga, Tenn........................... 500

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Total..................................................... 2,700

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Hardee's corps, Ringgold, Ga.............................. 700

Hardee's corps, Tunnel Hill, Ga........................... 250

Hardee's corps, Dalton, Ga................................ 500

Hardee's corps, Catoosa Springs, Ga....................... 800

Hardee's corps, Chattanooga, Tenn......................... 500

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Total..................................................... 2,750

McCown's division, Cleveland, Tenn........................ 600

At Atlanta and Dalton will be wayside hospitals, for transient sick, with 200 and 600 beds, respectively. The three hospitals in Chattanooga will be reserved for patients too sick for transportation beyond that point; the one nearest the railroad depot as a receiving and distributing hospital.

All sick sent from the army will report at the reception hospital, near the depot, in Chattanooga, where transportation has to be changed. They will then be furnished with proper diet, have their names, &c., recorded. Such as are too sick for further transportation will be assigned accommodations, and the balance at once assigned by the superintendent of hospitals.

Guards of well disciplined and officered troops will be sent to these hospitals as follows:

To Rome, Ga................................................ 100

To Ringgold, Ga............................................ 70

To Dalton, Ga.............................................. 70

To Tunnel Hill, Ga......................................... 25

To Atlanta, Ga............................................. 100

To Catoosa Springs, Ga..................................... 80

To Cleveland, Tenn......................................... 50

Each of the hospitals at Chattanooga, Tenn................. 30