you request. The general commanding directs that Colonel Long's command be sent forward as soon as possible. Acknowledge receipt by telegraph.

By command:

HENRY STONE,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS CHIEF OF CAVALRY,
Sugar Valley, Ga., May 13, 1864.

Colonel W. W. LOVE,

Fifth Iowa Cavalry, Nashville, Tenn.:

You will proceed immediately to join the Third Division and take command, General Kilpatrick having been wounded. Ascertain at Chattanooga the headquarters of the department and report to me.

W. L. ELLIOTT,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Cavalry.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NASHVILLE,
Nashville, Tenn., May 13, 1864.

Brigadier General W. D. WHIPPLE,

Asst. Adjt. General, and Chief of Staff, Dept. of the Cumberland:

GENERAL: Of the defenses and garrisons on the railroads I beg leave to report as follows: The defenses on the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad are about completed, and manned as directed by instructions on that subject from department headquarters, with some exceptions to be stated. Block-house at Stevenson are unfinished; in fact scarcely begun. Timbers are being gotten out by Colonel Lyon, Thirteenth Wisconsin, Volunteers, who is doing what he can (but slowly) to complete the work; his force is small but will be at once increased. The force at Duck and Elk Rivers is larger than directed by instructions, there being at the former 200 men and one piece of artillery, and the latter about 200 men. I have ordered two pieces of the redundant artillery here to that point, and two sergeants of artillery to drill the infantry and then return. As to the condition of the roads and the troops garrisoning them I call attention to the reports* of Captain Williams and Lieutenant Willett, of my staff, accompanying this report. When the works at Stevenson shall be finished, I am of opinion every garrison on the road between Nashville and Lookout Creek will be able to defend itself till and can reach it. Water-tanks have been furnished all the block-houses on that road and on the Tennessee and Alabama Railroad to Lynnville, to which point General Sherman verbally directed me to take control. The garrisons have 200 rounds per man of ammunition, and are ordered to keep five days' rations on hand. Other steps, I need not name, have been taken to secure efficiency among which I greatly rely on constant inspections. Against guerrillas and small bodies of cavalry these block-houses are impregnable. A large force could not take them without artillery, but the railroad between them cannot be preserved without a sufficient mounted force to destroy the roving bands of the enemy. Of late they have fired into the trains and broken up the road at night in one or two places; patrolling will in a measure prevent this, but not entirely, as the guerrillas may lie in wait and shot the patrols, or permitting them to go by, tear up the road behind them.

---------------

* Not found.

---------------