[Inclosure.]

HDQRS. 17TH ARMY CORPS, DEPT. OF THE TENNESSEE,
In Camp, February 13, 1864 - 7 p. m.

Brigadier General M. D. LEGGETT,

Commanding Third Division:

GENERAL: On this side of the first large creek from where I left you is a road leading to Chunky's Station on the railroad. At daylight to-morrow morning you will send General Force's brigade down to the station by this road, and let him join us by some road which comes into other road we are advancing on ahead of our present position.

While at the station General Force will have his command do all the damage to the railroad he possibly can. He will take his ambulances and a section of artillery, and you had better have a few men of the pioneer corps go along to repair roads and clear away obstructions. His wagons will come along with the main train, as he will join us to-morrow night.

Captain Foster will be instructed to send two companies of cavalry to report to General Force at daylight in the morning.

Yours, truly,

JAS. B. MCPHERSON,

Major-General.

HDQRS. FIRST Brigadier, THIRD DIV., 17TH ARMY CORPS,
Big Black Bridge, Miss., March 10, 1864.

CAPTAIN: In obedience to General Orders, Numbers 32, I have the honor to report that at 3 p. m., February 3, I received marching orders, and the same evening crossed the Big Black with the rest of the division.

At noon of the 5th, the brigade was formed in line of battle on the eastern side of Clinton against a strong position occupied by the enemy with artillery and dismounted cavalry, who fell back as we advanced. At this position 2 enlisted men of the One hundred and twenty-fourth Illinois were wounded.

Major-General McPherson, desiring to occupy Jackson with one infantry brigade that night, the brigade volunteered, and, entering at the south side of the city, reached the works at the north of the city by 8 p. m., a march of 23 miles. About the works and on the road north I captured and destroyed eight new army wagons. During the night bivouacked near Brandon. A detail from the brigade destroyed half a mile of railroad.

On the evening of the 13th, in pursuance of orders, I bivouacked off the road on the banks of one of the branches of the Chunky, 4 miles in rear of the army, and proceeded next morning to Chunky's Station, surprising and driving a cavalry force there under command of Major General S. D. Lee, and destroying the bridge and road and other public property, a report of which was made at the time, and which I request to be appended and made part of this.

I have since heard that Brigadier-General Jackson, who was the immediate commander of the two brigades encountered there, arrived on the field from Meridian in time to be wounded; that a colonel was killed; that the rebels lost besides in killed from 6 to 11 [men] and several horses killed, and that the bridge was entirely consumed to ashes.

The Forty-fifth Illinois, Major Duer commanding, was left guard