HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO,
Cincinnati, Ohio, March 15, 1863.

Colonel J. C. KELTON,

Asst. Adjt. General, Hdqrs. of the Army, Washington, D. C.:

COLONEL: I telegraphed the General-in-Chief to-day, urging the sending of re-enforcements to Kentucky as speedily as possible, to save the State from threatened raids on the part of the rebels, and calling his attention to previous communications upon the same subject.

The force now within the State of Kentucky is the minimum for winter defense, while the roads and streams are impassable for any considerable forces, but is not sufficient for its protection after the condition of the country renders raids or invasions practicable. Hence the call so earnestly urged for re-enforcements. The information received touching any probable raid or invasion is very indefinite, and would scarcely be entitled to credit were it not for the fact that every raid or invasion hitherto attempted by the rebels has been foreshadowed by just such information.

A dispatch just received from General Rosecrans makes me the more uneasy in regard to the condition of affairs in this quarter, and while I do not fully comprehend his meaning, yet the general tone of his communication is calculated to occasion serious fears. I thereof re repeat that the force within the Department of the Ohio is not adequate to resist fully and efficiently any serious invasion; that I do not believe that the army of General Rosecrans as at present situated can afford adequate relief, and consequently that a re-enforcement of 10,000 men for the force in Kentucky should be sent without delay. The interests of the service demand that a much larger reserve force should be retained in Kentucky to support our armies in advance, and I am aware that no such force is at the disposal of the General-in-Chief. Whatever is at his command to the extent indicated should be sent here without delay.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. G. WRIGHT.

[Inclosure.]

MURFREESBOROUGH, March 13, 1863.

Major-General WRIGHT, Cincinnati:

It is of the utmost consequence that this army should neither retrograde nor be so reduced as not to threaten the offensive. It should be fully supplied for six months in depots here and at Nashville. Every effort should be bent to keep the troops all here, and our rear covered by troops drawn from East as well as West. How comes it that the West not only fights its own battles, but send troops East to aid them, yet we have only half the population they have? Please stir this matter, and get troops from Wisconsin or Michigan if you can't get them from the East. Don't let this force be moved back.

ROSECRANS.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO,
Cincinnati, Ohio, March 15, 1863.

Brigadier General G. W. CULLUM,

Chief of Staff, Hdqrs. of the Army, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: The recent action of the Senate, in refusing my confirmation as major-general, of which I presume there is no doubt, can be