COLONEL: I have
received to-day one letter from Captain Lyford, chief of ordnance, in relation
to sending down 32 pounder guns and carriages for 10-inch columbiads. Colonel
[Ignatz G.] Kappner, First Tennessee Heavy A.D. Artillery, proceeded at once to
Columbus and Island No. 10 to fill this order.
In the other, from
yourself, of the 8th, you direct the infantry find artillery of this command
held ready for still further reduction at short notice.
The command is ready
to be moved as rapidly as can be done and to any extent required by orders from
headquarters. It now covers the main line of road from Memphis to Corinth, and
covers this very lightly. Had I any disposable infantry force, I should move
down the Panola road.
Scout in at La
Grange; left Jackson the 7th. Says they claim 50,000 men with Johnston; he
thinks not more than 30,000. Breckinridge is there with 10,000. Forces
constantly arriving from Charleston, Savannah, and Tennessee. The railroad was
fully repaired on Saturday. Forage and supplies being forced down from all
parts of Mississippi.
[W. H.] Jackson and
[J. W.] Whitfield, with cavalry, reached Jackson on Friday. Hatch has just
returned from an expedition along the Tallahatchee. Met nothing but pickets and
light squads. I shall send the whole of my cavalry down as far as they can go,
to destroy crops and break up roads and means of transportation.
A portion of the
Second Division, of Ninth Army Corps, arrived this afternoon; the balance will
be here in a few hours from Cairo. The division is in command of Major-General
Parke. Everything is being pressed forward as fast as possible, but there is
terrible scarcity of boats, and it seems as if boats that go down to your parts
never return. It is impossible to send anything down until some of the boats
below are returned. Every boat from Saint Louis is in service. They should not
be kept an hour after they are discharged of their cargoes.
I am fully satisfied
that Johnston cannot bring more than 35,000 men, of all arms, within the next
ten days.
Bragg is removing
his stores to Atlanta, but Rosecrans will not believe any reports from this
quarter, and I have ceased communicating with him, except through Washington.
He could now easily clear Middle Tennessee and open communication with Dodge at
Hamburg.
I have the honor to
be, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. A. HURLBUT.
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