DEAR SIR: Your favor of the 6th instant is at hand.* I have done all in my power to get troops and transportation and means to advance into Tennessee. I believe General Sherman has done the same. Up to this time we have been unsuccessful.
Have you heard by authority that the troops at London were to fall back? because I have not, and shall not move any of them back unless ordered; because, if not interfered with, I can have them subsisted there as well as here. I am inclined to think that the rumor has grown out of the feverish excitement which seems to exist in the minds of some of the regiments that if we stop for a day that no further advance is contemplated. I can only say I am doing the best I can. Our commanding general is doing the same, and using all his influence to equip a force for the rescue of Tennessee.
If the Tenneseeans are not content and must go, then the risk of disaster will remain with them. Some of our troops are not yet clothed, and it seems impossible to get clothing.
For information respecting the organization of regiments, I inclose you General Orders, No. 70, from the War Department.
If the gentlemen you name can raise regiments agreeably to the conditions and instructions contained in said order, the Government will accept them, and I hope will have arms to place in their hands in the course of two or three months.
In conclusion I will add that I am here ready to obey orders, and earnestly hope that the troops at London will see the necessity of doing the same.
* Not found.
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