I pen a line, sir. I am well, and is right strait out for the Union, and I am never going in the service any more, for I am for the Union for ever and ever, amen. I am doing my work. There was 800 left to go to the North, so will tell you all about it in the next letter; so I will close.

Your brother till death. Hurrah for the Union? Hurrah for the Union, Union?

THOMAS HUNTER.

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

Numbers 184.
Richmond, August 4, 1863.

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VIII. The limits of the Department of Tennessee, as described in Paragraph VII, Special Orders, Numbers 176, current series, will embrace also the following counties in Alabama, viz: The counties of Franklin, Lawrence, Morgan, Blount, Saint Clair, Calhoun, Cherokee, De Kalb, and Marshall.

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By command of the Secretary of War:

JNO. WITHERS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

CHATTANOOGA, August 5, 1863.

General S. COOPER:

After fully examining all resources, I deem them insufficient to justify a movement across the mountains.* No enemy in force this side.

BRAXTON BRAGG.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF TENNESSEE,
Chattanooga, August 5, 1863.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond:

SIR: On the receipt of your dispatch of the 1st, replied to on the 2nd instant, I was not in possession of sufficient data to enable me to give a decisive answer. Since then I am informed of the forces of Generals Johnston and Buckner, which might be used for the purpose indicated, in conjunction with my own. With this information, I fell it would be unsafe to seek the enemy where he now is, in Middle Tennessee, for a fight.

Leaving the necessary garrisons to cover our depots and lines of communication, we could not assemble over 40,000 effective infantry and artillery. To this might be added, possibly, 10,000 mounted men, poorly armed and badly mounted, giving but little strength in a battle. The enemy have in Middle Tennessee, by their own showing, 60,000 effective men. In Kentucky, with Burnside's men now returning from Mississippi, they will soon have 30,000 more, all of which can concentrate on their front before we can. With this disparity of numbers, it would be rashness to place ourselves on the farther side of a country rugged and sterile, with a few mountain roads only by which to reach a river difficult of passage. Thus situated, the enemy need only avoid

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*See Cooper to Bragg, August 1, and Bragg's reply, August 2, p. 948.

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