NEAR LIBERTY, May 9, 1863-8 p. m.

Major General JOSEPH WHEELER,

Commanding Army Corps, McMinnville, Tenn.:

GENERAL: I am camped with my brigade at the forks of the Lebanon and Murfreesborough pike. I have no movements of the enemy to report. My couriers report the river at Sligo Ferry now fordable. Please send me a paper with the particulars of the fight at Fredericksburg. We have aa rumor in camp that General Price has gained aa great victory in Missouri. Is the report reliable? An officer of the First Kentucky Cavalry, just in from Kentucky, informs me that General Burnside has now only five regiments in that State, and says it is believed in Kentucky that the balance of this army has re-enforced General Rosecrans. I give these rumors as I hear them, not knowing whether reliable or not.

Very respectfully, general, your obedient servant,

THOS. HARRISON,

Commanding Cavalry Brigade.

HDQRS. HARDEE'S CORPS, ARMY OF TENNESSEE,
Near Wartrace, May 9, 1863.

Major-General BRECKINRIDGE,

Commanding near Fairfield:

GENERAL: The following thoughts, which I will express in interrogations, occurred to me on returning last night from your headquarters:

1st. If you were required to re-enforce Cleburne with your division, or any part of it, on what road or roads would you march to reach him with the greatest dispatch, Cleburne being at or near Liberty Gap?

2nd. What roads lead from the front to your position at Jacobs' Store? Have they been reconnoitered, and are they sufficiently guarded to prevent surprise, even if the cavalry fails to do its entire duty?

3rd. Are there any lateral roads leading to your position? Are there any roads to the right or left by which an enemy could get in your rear?

4th. How long would it take Captain Cobb to get his battery in motion, his horses being at picket line; in other respects unprepared?

5th. Can you ascertain whether there is any forage or subsistence to be had in front of us, between our pickets and those of the enemy, at what houses, how far from the main road, &c.?

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. J. HARDEE,

Lieutenant-General.

HUNTSVILLE, ALA., May 9, 1863.

His Excellency Governor HARRIS:

MY DEAR SIR: I am more than content with the result of your conference. When in Columbia, two weeks since, and while Forrest was on his way down south, he applied to me and urged me to get myself assigned to the command of cavalry, and asked to be placed under my orders; so did General Jackson. I do not like that service; greatly preferred the infantry; but though I had declined Forrest's and Jackson's applications, yet the command suddenly being rendered vacant, and having no command, and being tired of my present position, I concluded I would accept that duty. Since, however, Forrest is assigned