[CHAP. XLII.

CAVALRY BUREAU, OFFICE OF CHIEF QUARTERMASTER,

Washington, D. C., October 12, 1863.

Captain I. CORYELL,

A. Q. M., care Captain W. Jenkins, A. Q. M., Louisville, Ky.:

General Rosecrans has requested that horses shall be sent at once to Louisville for his army. I have this day ordered 1,000 to be shipped from Chicago to you at Louisville. Make immediate arrangements for taking care of them.

C. G. SAWTELLE,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Chief Quartermaster, Cavalry Bureau.

NASHVILLE, October 12, 1863.

Major General W. S. ROSECRANS:

GENERAL: Will the parole of the Fourth Infantry, Tennessee Volunteers, at McMinnville, be regarded as valid? If not, I desire to re-organize the regiment as soon as possible. Most of the paroled men were sent in the direction of Sparta, and from there they have gone into East Tennessee.. There are some 50 of them at this place. I think major Patterson, who was in McMinnville, did all that could have been done under the circumstances. He had only 400 men, and fought the enemy one hour and a quarter, who were thousands while his were hundreds, and that, too, without a single piece of artillery. Here, where his exposed position was known, there was but one opinion, and that was he would be annihilated or captured unless he was ordered to fall back upon Murfreesborough.

Major Patterson is a worthy man and a good citizen, and if permitted will do good service yet. The colonel of the regiment is lying prostrate in a sick bed, his recovery doubtful. The lieutenant-colonel is now in Eastern Tennessee raising men to fill out the regiment, and with your consent will send the fragment there with Major Patterson, to unite with them in East Tennessee.

I have succeeded so far very well in organizing companies to fight guerrillas in your rear; two full companies will be equipped this week at this place. The men have come in from the country where the guerrillas are most numerous, and understand how to meet them. There are many others nearly ready to be equipped. We are getting along very well with the Northwestern Railroad, especially so when we consider all that has transpired since the commencement. We have started this morning a full regiment of negroes armed and equipped to the Northwestern Railroad to work and fight. As they passed through the town they looked and behaved well; the work is going on. May the protecting arm of a just and Almighty God be suspended over you and your gallant army, and pass you through as it did the children of Israel through the Red Sea.

ANDREW JOHNSON,

Military Governor.

HEADQUARTERS JOHNSON,

Nashville:

The paroles of the McMinnville prisoners are not valid and will not be recognized. The general commanding desires the men to be