SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. RIGHT WING, 16TH ARMY CORPS, Numbers 83.
Memphis, Tenn., July 23, 1864.

I. DIVISION commanders will, as rapidly as possible, organize and prepare their commands for field service. Wagons and harness should be repaired batteries completed, horses and clothing drawn, and everything be placed in readiness for another field campaign.

By order of Major General A. J. Smith:

J. HOUGH,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

CITY POINT, VA., July 24, 1864.

C. A. DANA,

Assistant Secretary of War:

I have no objection to the order prohibiting arms going into Kentucky being relaxed so far as to allow the Governor of the State to receive arms.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

LOUDON, July 24, 1864.

Captain AMMEN,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

Just received report from scouts. My men are now all together on Ball Play. The rebels are reported to have broken up into small squads and scattered in different directions. The officer in command says he has plenty of force. The rebels burned Captain Devine's (provost-marshal of Monroe County) house last night. Their only object seems to be to steal and plunder.

M. L. PATTERSON,

Lieutenant-Colonel.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, near Atlanta, Ga., July 24, 1864.

Major-General SLOCUM,

Commanding Vicksburg, &c.:

GENERAL: I have received yours of July 2. I fear you were more affected by the words of my telegram than I designed. By the language used I aimed to express emphatically how important General Grant and I deemed the intersection of the MISSISSIPPI Central and the Vicksburg and Selma roads. We had worked for it so hard that I felt sensitive when I heard the enemy were gradually closing the gap. Be assured of my sincere respect, and if you will be most active, whether successful or not, you may count on my personal and official support. This may not be a motive, but for the time being I represent the Great Valley, and I do think I appreciate the relative value of its parts. Though far away here in Georgia thundering away at Atlanta my thoughts revert to MISSISSIPPI and that great valley, which appears to me the spinal column of America, that you will pardon me if at time I am sensitive as to the safety of its vital parts. There is a seeming conflict of authority between General Canby's command and mine. Were I near I feel we would perfectly accord, but being so far away I will