marching east with five corps. The naval battery is not yet completed, but soon will be. I do not, however, think that its fire will be of any effect. The battering of Sumter is, in my opinion, an idle waste of material, and the guns would be useless in an attack on Charleston. The stockade at the pen will be used to strengthen the works on the front. Guns (probably practice) are heard in the rear of Charleston.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO P. HATCH,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., November 20, 1864.

Major General H. W. HALLECK, U. S. Army,

Chief of Staff, Armies of the United States, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to state that, in consequence of the great want of horses for the use of the quartermasters of this department, I have been obliged, as a military necessity, to dismount the Seventy-fifth Ohio Mounted Infantry, doing duty in Florida. We have now only one battalion of the Fourth Massachusetts cavalry. This has been so reduced by captures and losses in battle as to number only 100 men for duty, which is entirely inadequate for the service to be performed. I would therefore respectfully, but urgently, request that a cavalry regiment may be sent to this department for duty. I would not ask for this, since I have been directed to remain strictly on the defensive, were it not absolutely necessary for defensive operations, particularly in Florida, where it is imperatively necessary to keep a large mounted force constantly on duty as pickets and scouts. In case a cavalry regiment cannot be sent here, I request that the two battalions of the Fourth Massachusetts Cavalry, taken with the Tenth Army Corps, may be returned to this department.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. G. FOSTER,

Major-General, Commanding.

CITY POINT, November 21, 1864--4 p. m.

Lieutenant-General GRANT:

File of Richmond papers of to-day just received.

From the Dispatch:

From Sherman's army we have the intelligence that it is moving in two columns, one upon Augusta and the other upon Macon. It is not likely that he is about to separate his columns for any length of time, and his march will probably he as follows: The column marching on the Georgia State road for Augusta will go as far as Madison, sixty miles, and there turning to the right march on Milledgeville, the capital of Georgia. The column marching on Macon will probably go to Crawford's, within fifteen miles of the town, and then turn off to Milledgeville and form a junction with the other body. By the movement Macon falls, and the enemy are at liberty to move on Augusta by following the Georgia Central Railroad to Brownsville, and then marching north; or on Savannah, by following the railroad to its terminus there. We shall soon hear of their cavalry around Macon, and very near possibly to Augusta. Sherman is moving rapidly, and is not much troubled with transportation. He has burned several stations at the depots he passed, and is destroying the country generally in foraging.