DALTON, December 8, 1863.

President JEFFERSON DAVIS:

Reports this morning from division commands show an effective infantry force of about 33,000, rank and file; about 2,500 artillery, and between 3,000 and 4,000 cavalry. There are, besides, several thousand on the sick report who are not sick enough to be in hospitals. There are also 2,000 State troops at Rome, where fotifications are being constructed, 1,100 at Resaca, and a few hundred at Etowah. The ordnance officer reports 112 pieces of artillery on hand, with a sufficient complement of horses; 20,000 surplus smooth-bored small-arms stored at Atlanta and other places, and a plently of ammunition. The commissary reports thirty days' rations on hand. Lees than fifty wagons and ambulances were lost during the late battle. By equalizing the distribution of the present field transportation, the whole army may be tolerably supplied. General Hardee considers that his force, if not attacked for two or three days, will be in good fighting order. During the past twenty-four hours 1,000 more men returned to the army from the rear. The wagon trains of two cavalry divisions have arrived safely from Knoxville; also the wagon trains of Vaughn from Loudon. Enemy's cavalry driven two miles beyond Ringgold last evening. The weather raining and roads bad. general Cleburne is strongly fortifying at Tunnel Hill.

J. C. IVES,

Colonel and Aide-de-Camp.

[31.]

RICHMOND, VA., December 8, 1863.

(Via Morristown, East Tenn.)

Lieutenant General JAMES LONGSTREET:

Your dispatch of yesterday received.* No reports have been received from you which enable me to judge of the present condition of your command or of operations which it may be practicable for you to undertake. Until such information is received I cannot decide the question which you present, and you must exercise a full discretion.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

[31.]

ATLANTA, December 8, 1863.

His Excellency President DAVIS,

Richmond, Va.:

Have you any intelligence from Longstreet? I have not heard since Leadbetter left Knoxville.

W. J. HARDEE,

Lieutenant-General.

[31.]

DALTON, December 9, 1863.

(Received 10th.)

President DAVIS,

Richmond, Va.:

A party that has returned from six miles beyond Ringgold saw nothing of the enemy. He has torn up the railroad track for four

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*See Longstreet to Davis, VOL. XXXI, Part III, p. 792.

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