HEADQUARTERS FIFTH DIVISION CAVALRY, Parish House, Three Miles from Duck Creek, December 19, 1864.

Major-General WILSON:

I have succeeded in crossing Rugherford's Creek with dismounted men; not being in force, the enemy drive slowly. I have gone into camp here, with one brigade near Duck River bridge. One of our own men, a prisoners, has just come in. He left Coring as a Confederate soldier coming to join the army. He left an ammunition train at lawrence burg. Two corps, Lee's and Cheatham's, went out of Columbia, on Pulaski pike, early this morning; Stewart's corps has the rear. All their cavalry, except a few companies, passed out of town by 10 p. m. The enemy's wagon train and pontoons not used at Columbia went out on the Lawrenceburg road or Mount Pleasant pike,a n he heard orders given by officers which directed stragglers and detachments to report at Lawrenceburg. He saw no artillery go out with the infantry; saw a few pieces in the rear of the enemy. The enemy are already retreating. My men have followed them some distance, and they are probably all in Columbia by this time [sic] belonging to their rear guard.

EDWARD HATCH,
Brigadier-General.

NASHVILLE, TENN., December 19, 1864.

Captain HENRY M. CIST,

Major-General Thomas' Headquarters:

The One hundred and seventy-fifth Ohio, about 400 effective, is the only regiment here which was on the Tennessee and Alabama Railroad. I will order it down as soon as I learn our army occupies Columbia. Nearly all the other troops at Columbia, and from there to Athens, before the rebel army came in, were cavalry, mounted and dismounted.

B. H. POLK,

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND, December 19, 1864.

Brigadier General JOHN F. MILLER,

Commanding Post of Nashville:

GENERAL: The major-general commanding directs that you will have all stragglers belonging to the troops in front whom you may find about the city of Nashville and vicinity arrested, confined int eh barracks,a nd turned out, under guard, every day, to work on the fortifications until further orders, reproting to the major-general commanding the number you have arrested and so employed. You will exercise great vigilance in overlooking the passes of persons permitted to go in and out of Nashville,a nd all persons who enter Nashville without proper authority should be arrested and put to work on the fortifications, until they can fully satisfy you that they are not enemies of the Government. Travel by railroad and steam-boat to Nashville form Kentucky and the States west of the Ohio River is positively prohibited, except with passes issued from headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi, for good reasons, which must be stated on the pass. This order will be understood as particularly applicable to women desiring to enter Nashville, and none will be admitted unless their loyalty is