HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE OHIO,
Nashville, April 17, 1862.

Colonel E. C. WILLIAMS,

Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry, Springfield, Tenn.:

COLONEL: The general commanding directs that you designate four companies from your regiment to proceed, under command of the most competent field officer, to the northern border of Tennessee (more especially to Clinton County), to patrol and protect that section of country from roving bands of marauding troops, horse thieves, and outlaws, which he is informed infest it, acting on both sides. All such parties, whether acting under the name of Union or rebel, will be equally considered enemies to the peace of the country and will be treated accordingly. You will designate the companies with reference to the necessity for troops at the points at which they are now stationed, the rapidity with which they can be assembled, and their peculiar fitness for the trustworthy duty on which they are sent.

Furnish the commanding officer with a copy of this letter, which will enable him to draw supplies from any commissary department within his reach.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

OLIVER D. GREENE,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, April 17, 1862.

General ANDREW JOHNSON,

Governor of Tennessee:

The President having delivered to me your telegram of the 12th to be answered, I would state that the troops at Cumberland Gap, being within General Halleck's department, it is not deemed proper for the War Department to change the command, which is now held by General Morgan.

Carter has been nominated and is now before the Senate for confirmation as brigadier.

Campbell's regiment has been ordered to Nashville to report to you.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

NASHVILLE, April 17, 1862,

(Received Washington, April 18, 1862, 1.40 a. m.)

LORENZO THOMAS, Adjutant-General:

Your dispatch has been received. A line running north and south through Knoxville, which is, as I understand, according to the orders recently made by the War Department, the western boundary of General Fremont's department. Cumberland Gap, and the forces in that vicinity were east of that line, and I supposed the disposition of the forces would be under his control or that of the War Department.

The intention was simply to give General Spears the command of a brigade, embracing the Tennessee regiments, without reference to who should command all the forces constituting the expedition into East