know if he is advancing toward Decatur, and you must use every endeavor to get reliable news from the south side of the river. The man Thrasher you speak of I know nothing about. He is not in my command, nor ever has been. You better inform Major Murphy. He must belong to the State troops. Any of his men committing unauthorized depredations will be arrested if they come within your jurisdiction.

As I before informed you, there is a heavy force near Decatur, and they appear to be working to our right.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

G. M. DODGE,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. LEFT WING, SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Athens, Ala., April 24, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel WILLIAM T. CLARK,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Huntsville, Ala.:

I inclose Colonel Rowett's dispatch* of 23rd instant and make the following explanation: Wisdom's regiment is Colonel Forrest's old regiment. Colonel Forrest was killed near Okolona by General Smith's cavalry. The regiments passing through Iuka are on one of the most direct and feasible routes from Jackson south to Okolona,, and they may be moving south instead of east.

The man Colonel Rowett speaks of meeting under flag of truce is one of the best posted on the south side of the river and a good friend to us. Anything he should report I should place great confidence in. In conversation with a citizen of Jackson's, Tenn., who left there a few days ago, I learned that he heard Forrest say that it was about played out trying to get us to send a force to West Tennessee after him. He supposed that if we did not come he would have to go to us, and he did not want to get where they could pit him or any of his force against Wheeler again, as his men had no confidence in him. He also says Forrest took many men out of West Tennessee, but not near as many as reported; that he sent south about 500 men of ours as prisoners. Everything indicated that he was about leaving West Tennessee for good. I have had no report from General Veatch to-day.

So far as taking forage to Corinth from Okolona, it has been going on for a month or more. They have the road so repaired that they haul it up in bunk and hand cars, hitching mules to them.

The man Thrasher Colonel Rowett complains of is not in my command, and I do not know who he is.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

G. M. DODGE,

Brigadier-General.

HDQRS. CAVALRY DIVISION, SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Memphis, Tenn., April 24, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel T. H. HARRIS,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

COLONEL: In obedience to the request of Major-General Hurlbut I beg leave to state that at the time of the recent entrance of the

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*See p. 460.

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