manding, to report to General Nelson. The Forty-fourth Indiana to the Fourteenth Brigade, Brigadier-General Van Cleve commanding, to report to General Crittenden.

* * * *

By command of Major-General Buell:

J. M. WRIGHT,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[10.]

CUMBERLAND FORD, April 22, 1862.

(Received 11.30 p. M. 23d.)

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

Please cause Lieutenant Charles Medary, Fourth Artillery, now or lately with Eighteenth Infantry, Major-General Buell's column, to report to me forthwith as aide-de-camp. A formal application will be made by mail, but I need Lieutenant Medary at once. I have closely reconnoitered the enemy's position. It is strong, but not impregnable. We are now water-bound by the mountain torrents.*

G. W. MORGAN,

Brigadier-General.

[10.]

HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-FIFTH BRIGADE,
Army of the Ohio, Boston, April 24, 1862.

CHARLES O. JOLINE,

Captain and Asst. Adjt. General, Seventh Div., Army of the Ohio:

GENERAL: On yesterday evening I received a dispatch dated Woodson's Gap, at the hour of 8 a. M., from Colonels Shelley and Cooper. Colonel Cooper was proceeding to the ridges as ordered. One hundred and eighty cavalry of the enemy were heard of in the valley; their precise whereabouts unknown. Information was also received that a brigade of rebel infantry had on the day before arrived in Big Creek Gap and stacked arms, with a train of wagons over half a mile long; their numbers not known. This information is corroborated by a lady direct from the gap who saw the enemy. The citizens here say there is no doubt of its correctness. What brigade, or its strength, is unknown. The distance from our camp to their is eighteen miles, or about that. I dispatched back to Colonels Cooper and Shelley to proceed with their expedition and execute the orders to them; the result I cannot now tell. Cavalry is indispensable here, situated as we are. I earnestly ask at least sent to my aid Colonels Houk's and Johnson's regiments, and arms and ammunition to keep pace with recruits. I desire some order assigning orderlies to me mounted.

Your obedient servant,

JAMES G. SPEARS,

Brigadier General, Commanding Twenty-fifth Brigade, Army of the Ohio.

[10.]

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, D. C., April 25, 1862.

THOMAS A. SCOTT,

Assistant Secretary, Pittsburg Landing:

Doctor Hammond was confirmed to-day as Surgeon-General under the new law. The Saint Louis medical department will receive his

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*For Stanton to Morgan, see VOL. X, Part II, p. 128.

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