from Pittsburgh. Shall take mechanics down to-morrow and set them at work. Lieutenant-Colonel Duff is a very effective and energetic officer, and will render valuable assistance. Colonel Harris is not a good commanding officer. A large force is required at once for preparing batteries to receive guns; also entrenching tools.

S. C. LYFORD,

Lieutenant Ordnance, U. S. Army.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, March 31, 1863-11.20 a.m.

Major-General ROSECRANS,

Murfreesborough, Tenn.:

Your abandonment of Fort Heiman is not approved by the Secretary of War, who has ordered it to be reoccupied by General Grant. It will hereafter belong to General Grant's department.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

FRANKLIN, March 31, 1863.

Major-General ROSECRANS:

Dispatch received. I think it probable that Forrest, Starnes, and Wharton have gone in the direction of Cumberland River, but have no positive information to that effect . Prisoners captured to-day report that Forrest has gone somewhere on a scout, but do not know where. To-day's operations show a considerable force of cavalry and artillery in our front.

G. GRANGER,

Major-General.

FRANKLIN, March 31, 1863.

Colonel GODDARD:

The men captured at Brentwood were of the Twenty-second Wisconsin and Nineteenth Michigan . I have some 400 men of the Thirty-third and Eighty-fifth Indiana with me, but cannot possibly spare them for Governor Morton or any one else.

G. GRANGER,

Major-General.

GALLATIN, March 31, 1863.

General GARFIELD, Chief of Staff:

GENERAL: A messenger arrived last night informing me that the rebels are still crossing. A party crossed between here and Nashville. I sent a party after them. They are concentrating about Hartsville. Either they intend to attack General Crook or to go into Kentucky and attack the railroad, and thence to Eastern Kentucky. They have planted two cannon on a bend of the Cumberland, so as to command the stream up and down.

E. A. PAINE,

Brigadier-General.