CHATTANOOGA, December 27, 1862.

Lieutenant General E. K. SMITH,

Knoxville, Tenn.:

The following dispatch just received from General Gragg:

Enemy advancing in heavy force. Send forward all troops and notify officers on trains to return by first cars.

B. BRAGG.

Had not all troops within reach of this place better be immediately sent on? Advise me by telegraph.

Respectfully,

BENJ. S. EWELL,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[20.]

CHATTANOOGA, December 27, 1862.

General J. E. JOHNSON, Jackson, Miss.:

General Gragg designated no troops, but wanted any that could be sent. I telegraphed to General E. K. Smith. He has only 1,200 troops in this part of his command. He will concentrate them at Kingston. I will send him your orders, and will in the meantime send part of the troops from this place and from all points near where there are any that can be spared, however few. General Stevenson's troops have all gone. The telegraph line to Murfreesborough does not work. Wire probably cut.*

Respectfully,

BENJ. S. EWELL,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[20.]

MURFREESBOROUGH, December 28, 1862.

President DAVIS:

Enemy stationary ten miles in our front. My troops all ready and confident. Nashville and Louisville Railroad broken up in Kentucky by my forces on 25th.

BRAXTON BRAGG,

General, commanding.

[20.]

ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, Montgomery, Ala., December 29, 1862.

Colonel JAMES H. CLANTON,

Special Aide-de-Camp:

COLONEL: Intelligence having been received that the enemy had effected a landing at Geneva, in Coffee County, you will immediately repair to that vicinity the purpose of repelling the invasion. You are authorized to call for volunteers, cavalry and infantry, and, if need be, to order out any number of militia companies in Dale and Coffee Counties, and in the name of the Governor of Alabama, to provide arms, ammunition, subsistence, and quartermaster's stores by purchase or impressment. You are, in fact, invested with the fullest powers to oppose a successful resistance to the enemy.+

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEO. GOLDTWAITE,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

[15.]

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*This in reply to Johnson's first dispatch, VOL. XX, Part II, p.463.

+See Shorter to Davis, January 10, 1863, VOL. XV, p.939.

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26 R R-VOL LII, PT II