126.] PADUCAH, January 20, 1865-5 a.m.

Colonel L. B. PARSONS,

(Care General Allen, chief quartermaster, Louisville, Ky.)

The troops are all on their way up the Ohio River. We leave with some 300 at 4 a.m. this morning and will overtake them to-day.

ARTHUR EDWARDS,

Captain and Assistant Quartermaster.

127.] COLUMBUS, OHIO, January 21, 1865.

Colonel LEWIS B. PARSONS,

Cincinnati, Ohio:

The trains which left here this a.m. for Bellaire are stopped at Zanesville to cook their rations. Cannot this be avoided by providing cooked rations at those places by the military authorities? It will avoid great delay.

T. LOUGH.

128.] CINCINNATI, January 21, 1865.

THOMAS LOUGH,

Columbus, Ohio:

The trains leaving to-day and hereafter will all heave five days' cooked rations. The commissary has assured me that arrangements should be made for hot coffee at Columbus and Ballaire.

LEWIS B. PARSONS,

Colonel and Chief of Rail and River Transportation.

129.] CINCINNATI, January 21, 1865.

SAMUEL C. GALE,

Agent Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Parkersburg, Va.:

Please telegraph me as early in the morning as consistent whether there is any change in the prospect for navigation, and also to-morrow evening.

LEWIS B. PARSONS,

Colonel and Chief of Rail and River Transportation.

130.] PARKERSBURG, January 21, 1865.

Colonel L. B. PARSONS,

Cincinnati, Ohio:

Navigation suspended at this point. Prospects are that it will continue for some three or four days.

SAMUEL C. GALE.

131.] BALTIMORE, January 21, 1865.

Colonel L. B. PARSONS,

Cincinnati, Ohio:

I have your dispatch from Louisville,* and your letter from Paducah. + Increase of numbers with five sets of vehicles is a surprise to us, but

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*See 20th, p. 241.

+See 16th, p. 230.

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