SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Numbers 176. Richmond, Va., July 25, 1863.

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VI. The Department, of East Tennessee is merged in the Department of Tennessee, which will be separate and independent, reporting directly to this office.

VII. The limits of the Department of Tennessee* will embrace the country now included in the Department of East Tennessee and west of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, and a line running south to the Georgia Railroad; thence along the lines of railroad, via Atlanta, to West Point, and from that place north to the Tennessee River, and down that stream to its mouth.

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By command of the Secretary of war:

JNO. WITHERS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT Numbers 2,
Chattanooga, July 26, 1863.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General Richmond, va.:

SIR; before the date dispatch from the honorable Secretary of War of the 25th instant, on the subject of the defense of Atlant, I had sent troops to the vicinity of that important depot,and made such other arrangements as were practicable for its defense. The question of the command, " where deferent bodies of troops happen to join and

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* See also Cooper to Johnston, August 12, p. 964.

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