tary power and exhaust the resources of the rebels. All our preparations should be promptly made firmly to advance and strongly to hold the country. We are now 212 miles from our base of supplies, our line of communication by rail being subject to many contingencies. More substantial provision must be immediately made. This should be by the Tennessee and Cumberland, as near as possible, to Nashville; thence to that place by the Edgefield and Kentucky Railroad north, and the Northwestern road south of Cumberland, the former to be repaired immediately, and the latter to be completed to a point on the Tennessee, below Waverly; country to be covered by occupation of Franklin, Columbia, Charlotte, and Waverly, without delay. Second, needful transports, tugs, and barges, to suit the waters of the Cumberland and Tennessee, by purchase, adaptation, or construction, should be prepared without delay. Third, three or four small light-draught, staunch-built, powerful tugs and gunboats, capable of ascending the Tennessee above the Shoals, should be prepared. The use of such boats at this time, co-operating with our movements, would save the Government millions in time and expense. In moving this army, these gunboats are of the utmost importance to guard the Tennessee, now masked by impassable roads and superior cavalry, besides the intrinsic value of time, each day's delay costing the Government $200,000. The time of delay in opening our road, and getting our mounted force to have the upper hand, should be used to begin and forward the preparation. Your approval of the needful construction or repair of those two railroads, and sanction of the necessary steps in regard to river transportation, as above indicated, is requested.

Yours, very truly,

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Major-General.

MURFREESBOROUGH, January 29, 1863.

Major-General WRIGHT, Cincinnati:

Your dispatch received. Am very glad you sent General Crook. No man could be more acceptable. With your consent, I propose to send up the Ninth and Eleventh Kentucky to Bowling Green (two first-rate fighting regiments, raised in that neighborhood), to replenish their thinned ranks, and get you to order down at once the Twenty-third and Twenty-fifth Michigan in their stead; and, if you think proper to spare them, the One hundred and Eleventh Ohio and the Wisconsin regiments. I think all of these regiments might safely be ordered down by rail at once. They need not bring their transportation.

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Major-General.

SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE CUMBERLAND,

Numbers 26.
Murfreesborough, Tenn., January 29, 1863.

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IX. By virtue of the authority delegated to the major-general commanding, by the Secretary of War, Captain B. W. Canfield, One hundred and fifth Ohio Volunteers, is, for disobedience of orders and gross neglect of duty in allowing his train, consisting of 34 wagons and 184 animals, under charge of 164 men, to be surprised and captured by a scarcely superior force of the enemy, without resistance on his part,