HEADQUARTERS FORREST'S CAVALRY,
In the Field, June 30, 1864.

Major General A. J. SMITH,

Commanding U. S. Forces:

GENERAL: I have received information of the killing (after capture) of several of my scouts, also the brutal murder of several citizens by troops of your command. Two of my scouts were captured and killed by the Ninth Illinois Cavalry, and one by the Seventh Kansas, whose major I do not intend acting hastily, but am causing an official report of these transactions to be made out. In the mean time I shall hold, under the order of Lieutenant- General Lee, commanding, all the officers captured at Tishomingo Creek as hostages, and shall certainly execute them man for man, or in any other proportion to stop it. I cannot of course believe that you approve such conduct on the part of your men, and believe that you will do all in your power to prevent it. At the same time it forces upon us alternatives recognized as legitimate, but which are, to say the least, unpleasant and unsatisfactory, although it is the recognized remedy, yet the innocent suffer and the guilty go unpunished. If, however, I am at all deceived as regards yourself, and these acts have been committed by authority of yourself or any other general officers, I respectfully ask that you will so state it.

I am, general, respectfully, yours,

N. B. FORREST,

Major- General.

HDQRS. FOURTH Kentucky VET. INFANTRY (MOUNTED),
Sugar Valley, June 30, 1864.

Captain S. B. MOE,

Assistant Adjutant- General, Chattanooga, Tenn.:

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of my command since leaving Chattanooga:

On the 23rd we left Chattanooga with orders, from the major- general commanding, to proceed to Resaca, via Ship's and Snake Creek Gaps, patrolling the country en route. Being advised that a force of several hundred rebels were annoying the railroad and supposed to have their headquarters about Villanow, I was instructed to get in rear of them, and capture or disperse them, in order to relieve our line of communication to the front from the serious annoyance they were inflicting. On the night of the 23rd we encamped at Rock Spring Church, intending to move directly to Ship's Gap on the following morning, at which time Colonel Watkins had, as I learned, determined to move to Rome. Between 5 and 6 o'clock on the morning of the 24th a half dozen men belonging to Colonel Watkins' command galloped into my camp, reporting that their command had been surrounded and surprised at daybreak, and, as they supposed, had been captured. These men belonged to the force on picket north of the place, and the enemy had succeeded in getting between them and the town. I immediately mounted my command, and, leaving one company to load and guard the train, galloped at full speed toward La Fayette. On the way I met a citizen the impression that the whole command had been captured. When within a mile of the town I met Captain McNeely, of the Seventh Ken-