Division of the Army of the Tennessee on the 6th day of April, A D. 1862, and the manner in which he obeyed them, together with facts and circumstances transpiring that day and the one immediately preceding, deemed necessary to a clear understanding of them:

In pursuance of the following order-

GENERAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE,

Numbers 30.
Savannah, March 31, 1862.

Headquarters of the District of West Tennessee is hereby changed to Pittsburg Landing. An office will be continued at Savannah, where all official communications may be sent by troops having easier access with that point than Pittsburg Landing.

By command of Major-General Grant:

JNumbers A. RAWLINS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.-

I was in charge of the office at Savannah, Tenn., with instructions to make out the necessary orders, and send forward to Pittsburg Landing all troops arriving from below. Up to the 5th day of April, 1862, from the date of said order, you had run up every morning to Pittsburg Landing and returned at night on the steamer Tigress, used for your headquarters boat, and on which boat steam was continually kept up.

The necessity for an office longer at Savannah having ceased, orders were issued for everything to be moved to Pittsburg Landing on Sunday, 6th day of April, 1862, and arrangements were being made accordingly.

April 5, 1862, a dispatch was received from Major General D. C. Buell, commanding the Army of the Ohio, dated Camp 3 miles west of Waynesborough, April 4, 1862, stating that he would be in Savannah, Tenn., with one and perhaps two divisions of his army the next day, and requesting to meet you there; to which you replied you would be there to meet him.

General Nelson's division of the Army of the Ohio reached Savannah on the afternoon of the 5th of April, but General Buell himself did not arrive; and supposing he must be near, you determined to ride out the next morning and meet him. That there might be no delay in getting off (and consequent detention in moving the office) to Pittsburg Landing, direction were given for breakfast and horses to be in readiness at an earlier hour than usual.

I was awakened by Captain W. S. Hillyer, a member of your staff, who had arrived from Cairo on the boat that brought the mail from that place, about 3 o'clock a. m., did not fall soundly to sleep again that morning. I got up at daylight, and in your private office was examining the mail, when you came down-stairs from your sleeping room. Your mail was handed you, and before you were through reading it Brigadier General John Cook, of Illinois, who had come in on a steamer during the night, reported to you in person his return from leave of absence for orders, and from that time until breakfast was announced, which was about 6 o'clock a. m. you were engaged in reading your mail and in conversation with General Cook.

While at breakfast, Edward N. Trembly, private Company C, First Regiment Illinois Artillery Volunteers, and on detached duty at headquarters, reported artillery firing in the direction of Pittsburg Landing. Breakfast was left unfinished, and, accompanied by your staff officers, you went immediately on board the steamer Tigress, then lying at the Landing. The horses being in readiness, as per orders of the night previous, were sent at once on the boat and orders given at once to start for Pittsburg Landing, delayiving only long enough for you to write an order to General Nelson to move his division by the road from