HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE,
Memphis, Tenn., March 14, 1865.

Major General GEORGE H. THOMAS,

Commanding Department of the Cumberland, Nashville, Tenn.:

GENERAL; Major- General Canby has ordered, under date March 4, through General Dana, nearly all of the effective force of cavalry now here to report to General Grierson, at New Orleans. Every regiment at all efficient is enumerated by name. As I understand, General Canby is authorized to give orders for the movement of troops here to can protect itself, as it has overflowed its banks from Memphis to New Orleans and is still rising. No boat has been intercepted for months, nor can the enemy approach near the river. This cavalry cannot be used on the banks of the Mississippi nor amid the swamps of the Gulf Department until the waters subside. General Grierson would, no doubt, be glad to have a respectable command, but I believe that a better use of the cavalry can be made from this point, and that the contingency upon which it is to be called for has not arisen, and I shall not send it until I am ordered by You to do so. Shall I send it!

The above I sent You yesterday to be telegraphed from Cairo, to which I beg to add: If General Canby may call on me for this cavalry he may, with equal right, call on me for all the troops here, for I know that no troops are now needed for the purpose indicated in General Orders, Numbers 21, War Department, in movement of troops for the protection oft he navigation of the Mississippi River. Most oft he effective cavalry now here has just returned from a demonstration down the line of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, which demonstration was commenced by order of General Dana the day following my arrival here, and I inclose You the report of the officer in charge of the expedition. For the purpose of quieting the country and encouraging the people, I wish to put the railroad in operation to La Grange, and perhaps to Jackson, in West Tennessee, but I cannot accomplish this if these troops are taken away. Forrest, with his command, is now recuperating down the line of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, with headquarters at West Point, and he has in all from 6,000 to 8,000 men,, under Generals Jackson, McCulloch, and Chalmers. When the roads get better and the waters subside I General Wilson and see them sweep down upon and make a final clean out of Forrest and is forces. I will further add that General Dana has requested me by letter to send a regiment of colored cavalry now hee to Vicksburg, and as the regiment is one which came from Vicksburg here with General Dana, and is greatly demoralized, I do not object to its returning there, if You approve.

Very respectfully, Your obedient servant,

C. C. WASHBURN,

Major- General.

HEADQUARTERS SAINT LOUIS DISTRICT,
Saint Louis, Mo., March 14, 1865.

Colonel BEVERIDGE,

Pilot Knob, Mo.:

See if You can't devise some plan to catch Hilderbrand and his confederates on Big River. The force You stationed at Farmington better be placed at Tyler's Mills. Hilderbrand's family lives here. There is