the failure of the expedition, I have the honor to request permission to publish my report.

I have the honor to be, your most obedient servant,

A. D. STREIGHT,

Colonel 51st Ind. Vet. Vol. Infty., Commanding 1st Brigadier, 3rd Div., 4th Corps.

Brigadier General WILLIAM D. WHIPPLE,

Chief of Staff, Department of the Cumberland.

HEADQUARTERS FIFTY-FIRST INDIANA VOLUNTEERS,
Chattanooga, Tenn., August 22, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor to report that since my return to duty, June 1 last, I have been endeavoring to obtain the necessary information, from the several regiments that composed my command, to enable me to render you an accurate report of my expedition in April, 1863; but, owing to the absence of most of my officers (who are still confined as prisoners of war) and the scattered condition of the men, I have been unable to collect as many of the particulars as I had intended.

On April 7, 1863, I received orders from General Rosecrans to proceed with the Provisional Brigade - about 1,700 officers and men, composed of my regiment (the Fifty-first Indiana), Seventy-third Indiana, Colonel Hathaway; Third Ohio, Colonel Lawson; Eightieth Illinois, Lieutenant-Colonel Rodgers, and two companies of the First Middle Tennessee Cavalry, Captain D. D. Smith - to Nashville, and to fit out as speedily as possible for an expedition to the interior of Alabama and Georgia, for the purpose of destroying the railroads and other rebel property in that country. I was instructed to draw about half the number of mules necessary to mount my command, at Nashville, and to seize in the country through which I passed a sufficient number of animals to mount the balance. On arriving at Nashville, I organized the following staff, to wit: Captain D. L. Wright, Fifty-first Indiana Volunteers, to be acting assistant adjutant-general; Major W. L. Peck, Third Ohio, to be brigade surgeon; Lieutenant J. G. Doughty, regimental quartermaster Fifty-first Indiana Volunteers, to be acting assistant quartermaster; Captain Driscoll, Third Ohio, to be acting assistant inspector-general; Lieutenant J. W. Pavey, Eightieth Illinois Volunteers, to be ordnance officer, and Lieutenant A. C. Roach, Fifty-first Indiana Volunteers, to be aide-de-camp.

As soon as possible all hands were at work to supply the command with the necessary clothing, ordnance, and equipments for an expedition of this kind, and on the afternoon of the 10th I received orders from General Garfield, chief of staff, to embark at once on steamers then at the landing and proceed down the river to Palmyra, land my command there, and march across the country to Forty Henry, and to seize all the horses and mules I could find in the country. Everything was speedily put on board, although it was late in the evening before the mules were brought to the landing for shipment. I was temporarily absent at the time, attending to some business affairs preparatory to starting; consequently did not see them.

As soon as everything was ready we proceeded down the river to Palmyra, where we arrived on the evening of the 11th, and disembarked at once. I sent the fleet, consisting of eight steamers, around to Fort Henry, under the command of Colonel Lawson, Third Ohio, and furnished him with four companies of the Fifty-first Indiana Volunteers as guard. He had orders to stop at Smithland and take on a quantity of rations and forage for General Dodge's command.