HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,

In the Field, near Atlanta, Ga., August 5, 1864.

General THOMAS:

Your dispatch is received. I will send a copy of it to General Palmer and give him a couple of hours to think of it, and if he reiterates his application I will leave you to accept and let him go. I will then indorse your recommendation of General Jeff. C. Davis as major-general and commander of the Fourteenth Corps. I don't want General Palmer to make so fatal a mistake as he seems bent on committing.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

SHERMAN'S HEADQUARTERS,

August 5, 1864.

Generals THOMAS and SCHOFIELD:

The following dispatch has just come through General Howard:

The pickets report heavy movements of trains toward our right. The rebel skirmishers are very active alone the whole line. It may be an evacuation, or they may be massing their forces on Schofield.

GILES A. SMITH,

Brigadier-General.

General Giles A. Smith is about Howard's center, in front of where the battle of the 28th was fought, therefore opposite to and nearest White Hall. Let Stanley pitch in again and generally let all our lines be active. If our movements had been more positive to-day I should infer that the enemy was quitting Atlanta to make sure of East Point.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, near Atlanta, Ga., August 5, 1864.

General THOMAS:

General Schofield telegraphs:

I am compelled to acknowledge that I have totally failed to make any aggressive movement with the Fourteenth Corps. The efforts yesterday and to-day on this flank have been more than mere failures. I have ordered General Johnson to relieve General Hascall this evening, and propose to take my own troops on the right and try to recover what has been lost by two days' delay. The force may very likely be too small.

From what I saw myself there was a manifest determination not to move toward the enemy. General Davis' division is a mile farther west than when it started. I see no help for it but to lose the services of the corps and let General Schofield feel for the enemy eastward, while the Fourteenth intrenches against a squad of cavalry that may be on the flank. Colonel Warner, of my staff, rode out half a mile in front of the extreme front and saw no sign of an enemy. I will have General Palmer report in the morning, and if he wishes to go it is best he should.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.