Giltner's brigade (formerly Williams'): This brigade was composed of the following regiments and battalions, viz: Fourth Kentucky Cavalry, Tenth Kentucky Cavalry, Tenth Kentucky mounted Rifles, First Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, Sixteenth Georgia Battalion, Sixty-fourth Virginia Cavalry, Fields' Company of Partisan Rangers. By an order from General Longstreet, in April last then commanding in East Tennessee, the First Tennessee Regiment and the Sixteenth Georgia Battalion were detached from this brigade and assigned to the brigade of Brigadier-General Vaughn, and the Sixty-fourth Virginia Cavalry wa assigned to the brigade of the late Brigadier General William E. Jones (now Brigadier General Bradley T. Johnson's). I am not informed that General Longstreet acted under any order from the War Department, and I do not understand that a department commander has been recognized by the War Department, without such order. Be that, however, as it may, I propose to the War Department to give me authority now to attach again permanently to Giltner's brigade the Sixty-fourth Virginia Cavalry, which in now in this department unattached. Giltner's brigade, as at present constituted, consists of the Fourth and Tenth Kentucky Cavalry and Tenth Kentucky Rifles, and from the report of this day numbers only 293 total present. Colonel Giltner is one of the most efficient officers and best disciplinarians in the department, and ought to have a better command. The Sixty-fourth Virginia Cavalry was raised upon the Kentucky border, is made up of material which, under proper management, ought to make a most effective command, but having been left in this department by General Jones, and having been unattached ever since, it has become completely demoralized an unreliable. This is regiment, which, some time before I came to the department, refused to obey an order of Brigadier-General Morgan to move to a different portion of the department, and openly rebelled, and a majority of them deserted. They are still near the Kentucky line, guarding the approaches from Kentucky, with no other command with them, as I have not yet had the opportunity of making a change. I am confident that in their present condition they could not be taken to the brigade of Brigadier General B. T. Johnson, in the Valley of Virginia, but that most of them would desert before they could be gotten there. This is a bad condition of things, but it is my duty to represent matters as I have found them. I am satisfied, if they are attached to Giltner's brigade, where they properly belong, that he will reduce them to a proper state of discipline. I ask, therefore, that an order may be made incorporating this regiment, Sixty fourth Virginia Cavalry, with Giltner's brigade, as it formerly was. I also ask that I may be authorized to attach the Sixteenth Georgia Battalion, the most of whom are now in this department and the remainder in the Valley of Virginia with General Early's command, to Giltner's brigade. The First Tennessee Regiment had probably as well remain where it is, with the other troops from that State. This arrangement would make Giltner's brigade composed as follows, viz: Fourth Kentucky Cavalry, Tenth Kentucky Cavalry, Tenth Kentucky Mounted Rifles, Sixty-fourth Virginia Cavalry, Sixteenth Georgia Battalion, which would make a brigade of some 800 men now.

Cosby's brigade (formerly Hodge's): By Special Orders, No. 188, Paragraph XXXIV, lately issued from the War Office, Brigadier-General Cosby was ordered to report here for assignment to the command of the brigade formerly commanded by Brigadier-General Hodge. This brigade, when commanded by General Hodge, was