SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE TENNESSEE, Numbers 148.
near Vicksburg, June 2., 1863.

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II. Colonel J. Richmond, commanding SECOND Brigade, THIRD DIVISION, SIXTEENTH Army Corps, will proceed to Haynes' Bluff, MISS., where he will disembark his command, and, for the present, form the garrison at that place.

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By order of Major General U. S. Grant:

JNO. A. RAWLINS

Assistant Adjutant-General.

WASHINGTON, June 2, 1863-11 a. m.

Major-General BURNSIDE, Cincinnati, Ohio:

It appears that Johnston is collecting a large force in General Grant's rear. It is believed that much of this is withdrawn from Bragg and East Tennessee. If so, there can be no danger of an immediate raid into Kentucky. It is important to re-enforce General Grant. What troops you have, not necessary to hold your position, should be sent to him. They can be returned, with additions, when Vicksburg is taken.

How many can you spare?

H. W. HALLECK.

WASHINGTON, June 2, 1863. -10. a. m.

Major-General ROSECRANS, Murfreesborough, Tenn.:

All accounts concur that Johnston is collecting a large force against General Grant, a part of which comes from Bragg's army. If you can do nothing yourself, a portion of your troops must be sent to Grant's relief.

H. W. HALLECK.

MURFREESBOROUGH, TENN., June 2, 1863

Major General H. W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief:

Your dispatch received. My anxiety about General Grant equals your own. The course I have pursued has been, in my judgment, the best to hold the rebel army in Middle Tennessee, without committing too much to hazard. If they value what they hold here more than what they risk in Mississippi, they will detach all they dare, and resist our advance with disadvantage to themselves and great advantage to us. If they do not, our first movement would have destroyed their hopes of succoring Mississippi, without a rapid abandonment of this State, and would have driven their whole force at once back to a position from whence they could send much heavier detachments south, and wait our progress over obstructed roads and destroyed railroads, which we would be obliged to repair, thus committing ourselves to labors and contingencies, without effective help to General Grant or our own interests. Up to this date there is not a general officer of my command who does not concur in these views as expressed. They have expressed them in council and private conversation. Rebels have probably sent Breckinridge and [J. P.] McCown's DIVISION, and red-haired [W. H.] Jackson,