HEADQUARTERS ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH CORPS, Brigadier-General CRUFT: Major-General Hooker directs that you cross your command at Shellmound, if the bridge is still there, and move it up to this point. Very respectfully, &c, DANL. BUTTERFIELD, Major-General, Chief of Staff. HEADQUARTERS ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH CORPS, Brigadier-General CRUFT, Rankin's Ferry: Please cross your command at Shellmound before bridge is removed, and march it to join General Hooker here, near Wauhatchie. A train of wagons will be to-morrow at Shellmound laden with supplies, for which you will please furnish an escort. If the bridge is removed at Shellmound before you can cross your force at Rankin's by it, march your command to Kelley's Ferry, where the bridge is to be sent, and cross it there, moving up to join here. Very respectfully, &c., DANL. BUTTERFIELD, HDQRS. SECOND DIVISION, TWELFTH ARMY CORPS, Commanding Officer Advance Forces: SIR: Bring your command to this point as rapidly as possible. We need re-enforcements. Guard well your right flank. Rowden's house is at the intersection of the Chattanooga and Brown's Ferry by the Kelley's Ferry road. By command of Brig. Gen. John W. Geary: THOS. H. ELLIOTT, Captain, Assistant Adjutant-General. OCTOBER 29, 1863-5 p. m. General REYNOLDS: See no change on the enemy's front or picket lines. As many are visible now as this time last evening. I have sent for the Ninetyninth Ohio from the island to strengthen my pickets. Shall I stay here or go to the regiments re-enforcing General Hooker? 5 R R-VOL XXXI, PT I W. C. WHITAKER, HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND, Brig. Gen. CHARLES CRUFT, Shellmound via Bridgeport (Care Colonel Le Duc): Leave one company at Rankin's Ferry to guard the supplies now there. Leave one brigade and your battery at Shellmound, where you will cross your whole command to the south side of river. Go with one brigade and Hooker's battery to Whiteside's and report to General Hooker. By command of Major-General Thomas : J. J. REYNOLDS. Major-General, Chief of Staff. General HoOKER : DEPARTMENT HEADQUARTERS, General Cruft has been ordered to leave a battery and a brigade at Shellmound, and to move to Whiteside's with his other brigade and your battery, and report to you. General WHITAKER: J. J. REYNOLDS, OCTOBER 29, 1863-7.05 p. m. You can remain at your headquarters to-night, but be prepared to cross the river in case of an attack. Signal Officer at General Whitaker's Headquarters: In which direction did you see the rebel troops move this p. m. ? Toward Missionary Ridge or Lookout Mountain? Answer immediately. GEO. H. THOMAS, HEADQUARTERS SIGNAL CORPS, Maj. Gen. J. J. REYNOLDS: GENERAL: The officer on signal station opposite Lookout, at Fort Whitaker, reports the following: Heavy columns of rebel troops have been passing across Chattanooga Valley from right (our right) to left. Were seen to pass front of General Baird's division. They occupied half an hour in passing one point. He estimates the number at about that of a division. No artillery with them. Battery No. 5 opened upon them. Could see them as they passed the different openings until they entered the woods at a point he judges to be opposite General Rousseau's command. This was at about 12 m. Respectfully, W. E. SHERIDAN, Captain, and Acting Signal Officer. HDQRS. SECOND DIVISION, TWELFTH ARMY CORPS, Maj. Gen. D. BUTTERFIELD, Chief of Staff, Eleventh and Twelfth Army Corps: GENERAL: Two brigades of Schurz's division are now here, one having reported at 7 o'clock. I have placed it in position. Have received 11,000 rounds of ammunition from General Howard. Will send for more to the place where General Tyndale is located. My rear toward Whiteside's is open. I am looking for two of my regiments and the other section of my battery, which are reported near with the supply train. I will send out scouts down Lookout Creek Valley. Cavalry would be very useful. I have the honor to be, general, very respecfully, your obedient servant, JNO. W. GEARY, Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers, Commanding. General THOMAS: OCTOBER 29, 1863-7.50 p. m. Rebel troops were moving about northeast. They were twentyseven minutes in passing a given point. WOOD, Lieutenant, and Acting Signal Officer. BRIDGEPORT, October 30, 1863. Major-General REYNOLDS, Chief of Staff : The Paint Rock left Brown's Ferry at 6.30 o'clock this morning; arrived here at twenty minutes to 12. She came down nicely. In rounding Lookout Point last night she was fired into, doing no serious damage. A hole was made in one of the steam pipes, which will be repaired, calked. Also loaded with provisions and started back for Brown's Ferry. She will tow scows to Kelley's Ferry. The crabs at the Suck for hauling over are still there, and apparently in good order. They ought to be guarded at once, as the boat cannot get up without them, and one of the prisoners on the boat said the rebels were going to destroy [them.] A force should be in the vicinity of the Suck, the Pot and Pan, to prevent small boats of the enemy from keeping the boats back. HENRY C. HODGES, Lieutenant-Colonel, and Chief Quartermaster. ORDERS. HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND, The general commanding tenders his thanks to Brig. Gen. W. F. Smith and the officers and men of the expedition under his command, consisting of the brigades of Brigadier-Generals Turchin and Hazen, the boat parties under Col. T. R. Stanley, Eighteenth Ohio Volunteers, and the pioneer bridge party, Captain Fox, Michigan Engineers, for the skill and cool gallantry displayed in securing a permanent lodgment on the south side of the river at Brown's Ferry, and in putting in position the pontoon bridge, on the night of the 26th instant. The successful execution of this duty was attended with the most important results in obtaining a safe and easy communication with Bridgeport and shortening our line of supplies. By command of Major-General Thomas: C. GODDARD, Lieutenant-Colonel, and Assistant Adjutant-General. GENERAL ORDERS, No. 265. HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE CUMBERLAND, The recent movements, resulting in the establishment of a new and short line of communication with Bridgeport, and the possession of the Tennessee River, were of so brilliant a character as to deserve special notice. The skill and cool gallantry of the officers and men composing the expedition under Brig. Gen. William F. Smith, chief engineer, consisting of the brigades of Brigadier-Generals Turchin and Hazen, the boat parties under Colonel Stanley, Eighteenth Ohio Volunteers, and the pontoniers under Captain Fox, Michigan Engineers and Mechanics, in effecting a permanent lodgment on the south side of the river, at Brown's Ferry, deserve the highest praise. The column under Major-General Hooker, which took possession of the line from Bridgeport to the foot of Lookout Mountain, deserve great credit for their brilliant success in driving the enemy from every position which they attacked. The bayonet charge, made by the troops of General Howard, up a steep and difficult hill, over 200 feet high, completely routing the enemy and driving him from his barricades on its top, and the repulse, by General Geary's command, of greatly superior numbers, who attempted to surprise him, will rank among the most distinguished feats of arms of this war. By command of Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas: C. GODDARD,. Assistant Adjutant-General. No. 2. Dispatches of Charles A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War. NASHVILLE, TENN., October 21, 1863-9 a. m. I arrived here at 10 last night, and return south with Grant this morning. Our train narrowly escaped destruction at a point about 8 miles from here. A tie had been inserted in a cattle guard to throw the train down an embankment, but it had been calculated for a train going south, and ours broke it off without damage. The purpose apparently was to destroy Grant on his way to Bridgeport. [C. A. DANĀ.] Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War. No change in the situation here. CHATTANOOGA, TENN., October 23, 1863. Ten days' rations on hand. Thomas firmly resolved to hold at all events. Rain heavy since midnight and roads worse to-day than yesterday. An immediate movement for the occupation of Raccoon Mountain and Lookout Valley is indispensable, but Hooker, though ordered ten days since to concentrate his forces for the purpose, has not done so, but waits on the ground that his wagons have not arrived from Nashville. The fact is, however, that about one hundred have arrived, and, besides, Thomas will not allow him to take any wagons at all in this movement. But Hooker seems to show no zeal in the enterprise. It will necessarily wait somewhat for the arrival of Grant, who was not able to make the whole distance of 55 miles on horseback yesterday, but will get in before night. The interior line of fortifications is so far advanced that General Smith tells me only one day's work more is needed to make them tenable, and the place temporarily safe with a garrison of 10,000 men, though the works will still be far from finished. The pontoons are done for a bridge across to Lookout Valley as soon as Hooker has moved into that position. The change in command is received with satisfaction by all intelligent officers so far as I can ascertain. The sentiment of the troops I do not yet know about. Of course Rosecrans has many friends who are unable to conceive why he is relieved, and these report he is to command the Army of the Potomac. The change at headquarters here is already strikingly perceptible. Order prevails instead of universal chaos. General Thomas thinks enemy are moving up against Burnside. Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War. [C. A. DANA.] CHATTANOOGA, TENN., Among the officers who most resolutely required the relief of Crittenden and McCook was General Palmer. It appears that he expected to succeed Crittenden, for on the consolidation he resigned. Now that the Fourteenth Corps has to receive a new commander I would respectfully recommend that Palmer's resignation be accepted. This will leave Reynolds the ranking major-general in this army next to Rousseau, who is so unfit that he cannot be considered. [C. A. DANA.] Hon. E. M. STANTON, |