KNOXVILLE, December 22, 1863.

General WILLCOX,

Walker's Ford:

Your dispatch of 8.30 a. M. is received. My orders and your dispatches have crossed each other. My desire is for you to keep a position near Maynardville and keep up constant communication with General Parke.

J. G. FOSTER,

Major-General, Commanding.

[31.]

HDQRS. SECOND DIVISION, FOURTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Chattanooga, Tenn., December 22, 1863

Generals MORGAN and BEATTY and Colonel McCOOK:

To you, as brigade commanders, I have the honor to transmit the above flattering testimonial of Major-General Sherman to the efficiency and soldierly bearing of the troops and skill of the commanders as evinced in our recent campaign in East Tennessee.* The remarks of General Sherman are highly complimentary, and when we consider the high rank and great experience of this officer in conducting campaigns, and the trying circumstances under which these complimentary observations were elicited, I am sure they will not fail to be highly appreciated by us all, and prove an additional incentive to future exertion and success. Please permit me to unite with General Sherman in expressing my admiration of the conduct of the troops, and to thank you, gentlemen, as brigade commanders, for your zealous co-operation during this short but eventful campaign.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JEF. C. DAVIS,

HDQRS. FIRST Brigadier, SECOND DIV., 14TH ARMY CORPS,
Camp Caldwell, Tenn., December 23, 1863.

The general commanding takes great pleasure in communicating the above flattering testimonials of Generals Sherman and Davis of the good conduct of his command during the late successful campaign, and embraces the present opportunity of adding his own thanks of to the commissioned and non-commissioned officers and privates of his brigade for their prompt obedience to orders and soldierlike conduct during the time referred to. Soldiers who can march over 200 miles in winter, many of them barefooted, poorly clothed, without camp or garrison equipage, frequently on short rations, without complaint, but on the contrary with cheerfulness, deserve not only the thanks of their officers, but of the whole country.

JAMES D. MORGAN.

Brigadier-General, Commanding First Brigade.

HDQRS. FIRST Brigadier, SECOND DIV., 14TH ARMY CORPS,
Camp Caldwell, Tenn., December 23, 1863

Lieutenant Colonel J. B. CAHILL,

Commanding Sixteenth Illinois Infantry:

COLONEL: Inclosed please find congratulatory orderin reference to our late campaign. I regret exceedingly that the Sixteenth was not

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*See VOL. XXXI, Part III, p. 439.

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