WAR DEPARTMENT,

February 8, 1862-5.57 p. M.

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

Saint Louis, Mo.:

Your dispatch received.* I concur in your suggestion, and will urge its adoption by the President.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

[7.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, February 9, 1862.

Brigadier-General SHERMAN,

Benton Barracks:

Hitchcock will be appointed to-morrow morning, and I am directed to assign officers accordingly. Make your preparations to take a column or division on the Tennessee or Cumberland.

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General.

[7.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, February 10, 1862.

COMMANDING OFFICER AT PADUCAH, KY.:

The Seventy-sixth and Sixty-eighth Ohio are on their way to Paducah. The Twentieth, Fifty-sixth, and Seventy-eighth will follow immediately. They will proceed directly to Fort Henry and report to General Grant.

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General.

]7.]

LOUISVILLE, KY., February 10, 1862-9 a. M.

General McCLELLAN,

Washington, D. C.:

Just received your dispatch. Would like to see you, but would it not attract the enemy's attention too much?

D. C. BUELL.

[7.]

CAIRO, February 11, 1862.

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

I find matters in connection with flotilla under Flag-Officer Foote progressing rapidly. The mortars and mortar beds for the first fleet of eight boats are here and all will be in place by the 18th. The other thirty are ready for mortars and beds. Under the arrangement made at Pittsburg they will arrive here as rapidly as they can be put in a position. Fleets of eight boats each can be completed every six days. One of the floats was tested yesterday under rapid heavy firing and stood the test well. The navy are now sending 600 seamen from Boston; 600 more are needed here immediately to fit up and man the gun-boats and floats; also two active and efficient lieutenants of the navy for depot at Cairo. Please have the 1,200 seamen and two lieutenants

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*See VOL. VII, p. 594.

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