SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, Numbers 182.
Cincinnati, Ohio, December 28, 1862.

1. Colonel Robert Johnson, First Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry, will proceed without delay with his regiment from Camp Dennison, Ohio, to Louisville, Ky., and report to Brigadier General J. T. Boyle, commanding District of Western Kentucky. * * *

* * * * *

By order of Major-General Wright:

N. H. McLEAN,
Assistant Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff.

[20.]

OFFICE OF THE SIGNAL OFFICER,

Washington, December 30, 1862.

Captain JESSE MERRILL,

Actg. Signal Officer, General Rosecrans' Hdqrs., Nashville, Tenn.:

CAPTAIN: I am directed to inform you that it is the intention to send to your department three field telegraphic trains of the kind now in use with the Army of the Potomac. These trains are ordered and are now making for you. The organization you will need for each train will be four intelligent sergeants and twelve privates with one commissioned officer. The sergeants need to be quick, intelligent, and of good education. The train can be run out at any time anywhere that men can walk, and the instrument can be worked by any intelligent soldier or officer after three days' practice. They were used in the field of battle at Fredericksburg and under fire with success, working easily without batteries, acids, or fluids. They are far in advance of anything used in Europe, and are American, and of the Signal Corps from the outset. The signal officer of the army deems it advisable that you inform General Rosecrans of the early expectation of these trains, that you apply for the additional details you will need to manage them, and to report here where they will be instructed while the trains are preparing, and will then, so soon as they are completed, leave in charge of the trains to report to you at General Rosecrans's headquarters. Instruction in the use of these trains will now be made a part of the regular course at the Signal Camp of Instruction, which is now organizing on a more complete basis at Georgetown, D. C. When the trains ared once in your possession I wish you to cause your officers to serve with them in turn until all are able to manage them when necessity may require. In reference to your corps I am directed to say you can assure General Rosecrans that everything this office can furnish to insure its perfection and success will be forwarded. It is intended the corps in the Department of the Cumbe a fair chance to achieve success. In achieve much reputation by communicating simply from one headquarters to another, though by this means you can most thoroughly practice your officers and men. Duty of this nature will be best done by your trains when they arrive, but when the army moves your parties must be always on the alert and in the front, keeping the general commanding always informed of the presence and movements of the enemy. Here you can be useful. I inclose an extract from the annual report of the signal officer of the army to show the duties in other departments.