KNOXVILLE, May 12, 1865.

Brigadier General WILLIAM D. WHIPPLE,

Chief of Staff:

Colonel Wheeler, with 50 officers and 730 men, Confederate Tennessee Cavalry, is at Strawberry Plains. Have come through under the terms of surrender between Johnston and Sherman. They claim the right to go in a body with their horses to Middle Tennessee, and there disband according to instructions of Johnston. What should be done with the officers and men, and what disposition be made of the horses?

Answer as soon as convenient.

GEORGE STONEMAN,

Major-General.

GREENEVILLE, [May] 12, 1865 - 5.30 p. m.

Major G. M. BASCOM:

The following dispatch was just received:

HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE,
Athens, Ga., [May] 7, 1865 - 12 noon.

GENERAL: Will you please forward the inclosed dispatch without delay to General Stoneman.* It refers chiefly to the movements of Jeff. Davis, who abandoned his cavalry escort at the Savannah River on finding that we had intercepted it, and passed through Washington, Ga., in disguise with sixty men on the night of the same day (May 4) that I reached Athens with my division. Colonel Stacy was at Lexington the same night, and his advance but a short distance from Davis' party. Secretary Breckinridge came very near being captured, and would have been had he been recognized. I have two regiments guarding the fords, ferries, & c., on the Oconee and Ulcofauhatchee Rivers, and have communicated with General Wilson at Macon, Ga., who is on the alert, and has a force at Atlanta. I would recommend that Colonel Kirk be directed to blockade all the gaps from Rabun Gap to Swann, merely to prevent straggling parties of disbanded soldiers from getting west to their homes or the Trans-Mississippi Department with arms in their hands. These would be apt to turn up as guerrillas. I am guarding all the roads, fords, & c., south from Rabun Gap as far as Milledgeville. I should suppose there would be no further necessity for your force remaining in the mountains. Everything has surrendered here, including 2,000 of Davis' escort under Dibrell, who we intercepted at Petersburg, on the Savannah River.

W. J. PALMER,

Colonel and Brevet Brigadier-General, Commanding.

The dispatch is quite bulky. Shall I open and send by telegraph, or by courier to-morrow?

DAVIS TILLSON,

Brigadier-General, Commanding,

Per W. W. DEANE,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

MORRISTOWN, May 12, 1865.

Lieutenant W. S. BRADFORD,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General:

Colonel Wheeler, C. S. Army, passed within eight miles of here last night with 1,200 men. They robbed Allen Snodgrass, a loyal citizen, saying the United States Government would pay for what they took.

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* See inclosure, Upton to Wilson, May 7, 653.

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