COLD HARBOR, June 3, 1864.

Major-General HALLECK,

Washington:

Please order the Sixteenth Corps staff to report to General Washington for duty. The Sixteenth Corps is now without a commander, that portion of it in the field being commanded by General Dodge, and the remainder by General Washburn. It may be well to leave this corps without a named commander until Sherman can be heard from, when, he may recommend the union of that portion of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth in the field into one corps, and the peace establishment of them, the troops in West Tennessee and below, into another.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, In the Field, near Dallas, June 3, 1864.

General THOMAS,
Commanding Army of the Cumberland:

GENERAL: General Hovey's division, supported by General Butterfield, reached the much-talked of Acworth road to-day, passing the enemy's flank. Colonel McCook reports to me his cavalry has been in Acworth; still our left is our weakest point should the enemy attempt it, which I do not apprehend. I wish you to relieve all of General Schofields' men behind parapets as far as the road which runs from McCook's headquarters to Marietta, and let him (General Schofield) have all his corps at the main Acworth road. Withdraw General Stanley's or General Newton's division, letting the other cover the line, and I will order General McPherson to support it if pressed. I think the rest of your line would be sufficiently strong be occupying the commanding points and holding the main bodies more massed in rear. As soon as I hear distinctly of General Blair I will withdraw everything beyond Brown's Mill.

Yours, truly,

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, In the Field, near Dallas, June 3, 1864.

Major-General THOMAS,
Commanding Army of the Cumberland:

GENERAL: General McPherson reports his trains back all safe from Kingston. I suppose yours also are back or about Burnt Hickory, in which case the wagon escort is near enough to be counted present. If so, I wish you to send a brigade of infantry, section of artillery, and such dismounted cavalry as Colonel McCook can spare, up on the Allatoona road to the works of the Acworth road, and along it to Allatoona Creek, where there is reported a good bridge and ford, to guard and hold that point. I want also a line of couriers to Allatoona, which for the present had better be by Burnt Hickory. Keep your pioneers busy on roads to Allatoona and Burnt Hickory.

Yours, truly,

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.