HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND, Near Spring Hill, December 19, 1864.

Major General J. M. SCHOFIELD,
Commanding Twenty-third Army Corps:

Your dispatch received. Move forward with your command in the morning at 8 o'clock, giving place, however, to all of General Wilson's supply train. You can go into camp in the neighborhood of Spring Hill.

GEO. H. THOMAS,

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

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO, Franklin, Tenn., December 19, 1864.

Major General GEORGE H. THOMAS,
Commanding Department of the Cumberland:

GENERAL: I have the honor to inclose herewith a letter to Major-General Halleck, Chief of Staff, urging the promotion of Brigadier-General Cox, and to urge that it may be forwarded with your indorsement. Unless General Cox can obtain the promotion which he has so often earned he will soon quit the service, which would be an irreparable loss to my command.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. M. SCHOFIELD,

Major-General.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO, Franklin, Tenn., December 19, 1864.

Major General H. W. HALLECK,
Chief of Staff, U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: I desire earnestly to ask your attention, and through you that of the President and Secretary of War, to the claims of Brigadier en. J. D. Cox to promotion. It is unnecessary to recite in detail the services of so distinguished an officer. He has merited promotion scores of times by skillful and heroic conduct in as many battles. He is one of the very best division commanders I have ever seen,a nd has often shown himself qualified for a higher command. Permit me to say that in overlooking the merits of such an officer as General Cox, the Government has, unintentionally of course, committed and act of great injustice, and one which must soon deprive the country of his services. An officer cannot exercise for three years a command which he is universally admitted to be eminently qualified for and yet be denied the corresponding rank, while his juniors, notoriously less deserving, are promoted,w outhit feeling such mortification and chagrin as must drive him from the army. Excuse, general, the earnestness with which I refer to this matter. I do not exaggerate the merits of the case; on the contrary, I do not half state it.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. M. SCHOFIELD,

Major-General.

18 R R-VOL XLV, PT II