of all the cavalry in the Military DIVISION of the Mississippi, is organized, with Brevet Major-General Wilson for commander. Chiefs of cavalry for departments are abolished. In pursuance of a policy agreed upon, I telegraphed you yesterday to send Hatch's DIVISION, without delay, via Stevenson, Ala., and Trenton and Rome, Ga., to join us here in the field, with all the men he can possibly get together and mount and equip, and to send his dismounted men, with a proper number of officers, to Nashville, to be there mounted and equipped. I wish you to prepare and keep you own DIVISION in the best possible condition ready for a movement through Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to join the Cavalry Corps in the field. General Sherman desires to make the cavalry force here as large and effective as possible, and to that end you will please use every endeavor to get Winslow's DIVISION back from Missouri, and to mount every available cavalry officer and man that can be found within the district. Major-General Wilson will send you further instructions and communicate more fully in regard to plans and details. I sent an order direct to Hatch, at Clifton, to come forward, by the route indicated in my telegram, without delay.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

O. O. HOWARD,

Major-General.

NASHVILLE, October 25, 1864 -9 p. m.

Brigadier-General HATCH,

Clifton, via Johnsonville:

Your dispatch of this day* received. Keep close observation of the enemy's movements and report any new discovery you may make.

GEO. H. THOMAS,

Major-General, U. S. Volunteers, Commanding.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, OFFICE CHIEF OF CAVALRY,
Nashville, Tenn., October 26, 1864.

Major General W. T. SHERMAN,

Commanding Military DIVISION of the Mississippi:

GENERAL: That you may be informed of what I am doing here toward remounting the cavalry, and the difficulties which stand in my way, I beg leave to submit the following report of what has been accomplished and what is in progress:

On my arrival here I took the earliest opportunity to ascertain the condition of things here, the number of cavalry dismounted, and the means of equipping them again for the field. The result of my examination was by no means encouraging. I found at the cavalry camp organized by General Smith, near this place, ear 2,000 dismounted men, detachments from many different regiments; on the line of the Tennessee and Alabama road were some 2,500 of Garrard's cavalry DIVISION dismounted; five new regiments Indiana cavalry - Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth -never mounted, and nearly all of the Fourth Cavalry DIVISION, Army of the Cumberland, mostly dismounted, and as nearly as I could learn in perfectly armed. On the

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* See October 24, p. 427.

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