been the interception of Van Dorn. I send a scout to Versailles early in the morning, and will be in Shelbyville in the morning on business. I think this outpost will soon be all right. Colonel [J. C.] Malone, jr., went to Shelbyville to-day. I send you a Louisville Journal of the 12th, the latest.

Most respectfully, general, your obedient servant,

JNO. A. WHARTON,

Brigadier-General.

EAGLEVILLE, March 13, 1863.

Brigadier-General WHARTON,

Commanding Outpost, Rover, Tenn.:

SIR: The enemy have just left, and are in line of battle about 1 mile distant. Two divisions of infantry and one brigade of cavalry have just evacuated the town as we enter. I have some prisoners. They have gone in the direction of Murfreesborough.

In haste, your obedient servant,

W. S. BACOT,

Captain, Commanding Detachment.

[Indorsement.]

WHARTON'S HEADQUARTERS,

Unionville, March 14, 1863.

Lieutenant-General POLK:

GENERAL: I sent out this morning Captain Bacot with his company and squadron of Texas Rangers to develop the enemy at Eagleville. *The dispatch on the reserve --- show with what success he accomplished his mission. Will dispatch you again to --- and will visit you, or --- to-morrow, the enemy be --- willing.

Most respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. A. WHARTON.

OXFORD, ALA., March 14, 1863.

Colonel B. S. EWELL,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Chattanooga, Tenn.:

COLONEL: In the order assigning me to duty, General Johnston-

Directs that [I] will proceed, without delay, to Middle Alabama, for the purpose of purchasing subsistence stores, and of establishing in the eastern part of that district depots of the same.

From the mere reading of the order, I should have been in some doubt as to the precise geographical boundary of my field of service, but in a previous conversation at General Polk's headquarters, in Shelbyville, I understood General Johnston as saying that I could operate in Middle Alabama, anywhere north of the railroad leading from Selma to Meridian, and hence, on arriving here and learning that but little could be done at present in the purchase of grain on the line of railroad leading from Selma in the direction of Rome, Ga., and believing, from the conversations alluded to, that the valleys of the Tombigbee and Black Warrior Rivers, north of the Alabama and Mississippi Railroad, were comprehended in my district, I accordingly sent agents into that section of country to purchase, and thus far have succeeded in buying a small lot of pickled pork, a few hundred bushels of peas, and about

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*The original of this is so mutilated that is cannot be deciphered.

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