commander, Colonel Hagan; to accomplish which you will, as heretofore directed, establish a line of couriers from your outpost to the headquarters, and send the general a dispatch every six hours, and oftener, if necessary.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

--- ---,

Aide-de-Camp.

CHAPEL HILL, March [8], 1863.

General POLK,

Shelbyville:

GENERAL: Yours, containing copy of dispatch from Columbia, just received. I will endeavor to keep you, and all others interested, advised if they should move in my vicinity. I have nothing since 11 o'clock last night, except a report, obtained from citizens by my scouts near Caney Springs, that Federal cavalry, 1,500 strong, left Raleigh Hill yesterday morning, going toward Franklin.

Very respectfully,

P. D. RODDEY,

Colonel.

HEADQUARTERS POLK'S CORPS, ARMY OF TENNESSEE,
Shelbyville, Tenn., March 8, 1863-7.30 a.m.

General EARL VAN DORN:

GENERAL: The lieutenant-general commanding directs me to say that he has just received a dispatch from General Anderson, giving information that the enemy had retired from Chapel Hill, and gone up the pike so far from his base as to make it imprudent to follow him, especially with the feeble cavalry force disposable for the protection of his right flank. The object to be effected by the proposed combination of your and his forces cannot be accomplished, and General Anderson will return to Shelbyville, leaving, as before, a brigade in observation on the Unionville pike. Colonel Roddey, the general apprehends, is to be blamed for not having kept him sufficiently advised of the movements of the enemy in his front. The effects of this joint movement will, nevertheless, be productive of good results.

As to operations proper for your own division, in view of this state of things, you will know how to be guided by the facts before you and your general instructions from army headquarters. The general takes occasion to suggest, however, that the cavalry force in his front, from Middleton to Eagleville, is inadequate to the duty assigned it, a fact which has been brought to the attention of the general commanding, and until this is remedied it may be expedient for you to hold a portion of your force at a point where you can give his front the necessary support.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

--- ---,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS POLK'S CORPS,
Shelbyville, March 8, 1863-7 p.m.

Major-General WHELLER:

GENERAL: Your dispatch of this date received. It is a pleasant thing to hear from you, as your statements are always so directly to