soon met, and the following order was handed to the General:

“War Department, Adjutant-General's OfFICE,

"WASHINGTON, October 16th, 1863. "By direction of the President of the United States, the Departments of the Ohio, of the Cumberland, and of the Tennessee, will constitute the Military Division of the Mississippi. MajorGeneral U. S. Grant, United States army, is placed in command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, with his head-quarters in the field.

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Major-General W. S. Rosecrans, U. S. Vols., is relieved from the command of the Department and Army of the Cumberland. Major-General G. H. Thomas is hereby assigned to that command.

"By order of the Secretary of War.

"E. D. TOWNSEND, A. A.-G."

From Indianapolis they proceeded to Louisville, where a large number of persons had assembled at the depot and hotel to greet them. The short stature of the General contrasted greatly with the huge dimensions of the assembled Kentuckians, and one remarked: "I thought he was a large man, but he would be considered a small chance of a fighter if he lived in Kentucky."

On the eighteenth he issued the following order:

"General Orders, No. 1.

"HEAD-QUARTERS, MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, "LOUISVILLE, KY., October 18th, 1863.

"In compliance with General Orders No. 337, of date Washington, D. C., October 16th, 1863, the undersigned hereby assumes command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, embracing the departments of the Ohio, of the Cumberland, and of the Tennessee.'

"The head quarters of the Military Division of the Mississippi will be in the field, where all reports and returns required by the army regulations and existing orders will be made.

"U. S. GRANT, Major-General."

The new command embraced within its limits the States of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Northern Alabama, and Northwestern Georgia, and gave to its commanding-general four large armies: that with which he had conquered Vicksburg; the "Army

of the Cumberland ;" the "Army of the Ohio;" and General Hooker's Grand Division. Sherman, Thomas, Burnside, Hooker, and subsequently Foster, were his army commanders, and the following corps were also embraced in the command:

The Fourth army corps, General Granger; the Ninth army corps, General Potter; the Eleventh army corps, General Howard; the Twelfth army corps, General Slocum; the Fourteenth army corps, General Palmer; the Fifteenth army corps, General J. A. Logan; the Sixteenth army corps, General Hurlbut; the Seventeenth army corps, General McPherson; the Twenty-third army corps, General Manson.

Large as was the command thus entrusted to General Grant, the strength of the rebel army in the Southwest was but little less stupendous-troops from all parts of the rebellious States, where their absence from other fields was not detrimental to their infamous cause, having been gathered there by General Bragg to thwart the plans of the Union commander, and to hold Kentucky and Middle Tennessee. They freely acknowledged it was better to "give up the seacoast-better to give up the Southwest-better to give up Richmond without a struggle, than lose the golden field whose grain and wool are our sole hope." They also pretended to have no fear of General Grant, and pronounced him and General Thomas two fools, a remark which led President Lincoln to observe, that "if one fool like Grant can do as much work and win as profitable victories as he, I have no objection to two of them, as they would surely wipe out the rebellion."

GENERAL GRANT AT CHATTANOOGA-HIS PREPARATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN.

On the twenty-first of October, 1863, our hero arrived at Nashville, and two days later reached Chattanooga. The

position of affairs at that time was any thing but promising. The roads over which the supplies for the army had necessarily to be transported, were almost impassible, and the soldiers were compelled to subsist on half rations. A large force of men was immediately placed at work to improve the means of communication, supplies began to come in in quantity sufficient to relieve the necessities of the soldiers, who, amid all their deprivations and suffering, were not dispirited, and thousands of reinforcements were taken to Chattanooga preparatory to the commencement of another campaign. The re-occupation of Lookout Mountain, which had to be abandoned by the Union troops after the battles of Chickamauga fought by Rosecrans, and the re-opening of the valley route, were the principal designs of General Grant; and although he quietly remained at Chattanooga, to use the language of an eye-witness, with his briarwood pipe, walking to and fro up the streets of the town, unattended, many times unobserved, but at all times observing, he was hourly adding to the perfection of his plans; and to prevent those plans from being known to the enemy, he issued the following order:

"HEAD-QUARTERS, DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, "IN THE FIELD,

"CHATTANOOGA, TENN., Nov. 5th, 1863. "The habit of trading parties of Rebel cavalry visiting towns, villages and farms where there are no Federal forces, and pillaging Union families, having become prevalent, department commanders will take immediate steps to abate the evil, or make the loss by such raids fall upon secessionists and secession sympathizers in the neighborhood where such acts are committed. For every act of violence to the person of an unarmed Union citizen, a secessionist will be arrested and held as hostage for the delivery of the offender. For every dollar's worth of property taken from such citizens, or destroyed by raiders, an assessment will be made upon secessionists of the neighborhood, and collected by the nearest military forces, under the supervision of the commander thereof, and the amount thus collected paid overto the sufferers. When such assessments cannot be collected in money, property useful to the Government may be taken at a

fair valuation, and the amount paid in money by a disbursing officer of the Government, who will take such property upon his returns. Wealthy secession citizens will be assessed in money and provisions for the support of Union refugees who have been and may be driven from their homes and into our lines by the acts of those with whom such secession citizens are in sympathy. All collections and payments under this order will be through disbursing officers of the Government, whose accounts must show all money and property received under it, and how disposed of.

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By order of

"MAJOR-GENERAL U. S. GRANT.

"T. S. Bowers, Assistant Adjutant-General."

THE

BATTLES NEAR CHATTANOOGA-GEN-
ERAL GRANT'S OFFICIAL REPORT.

Of the great battles which took place in the vicinity of Chattanooga, no better account could be given than that which is to be found in the following official report of the Commanding General:

"HEAD-QUARTERS, MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, "IN FIELD, CHATTANOOGA, TENN., Dec. 23d, 1863. "Colonel J. G. Kelton, Assistant Adjutant-General, Washington, D. C.:

"COLONEL :-In pursuance of General Orders No. 337, War Department, of date Washington, October 16th, 1863, delivered to me by the Secretary of War, at Louisville, Kentucky, on the eighteenth of the same month, I assumed command of the 'Military Division of the Mississippi,' comprising the Departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee, and telegraphed the order assuming command, together with the order of the War Department referred to, to Major-General A. E. Burnside at Knoxville, and Major-General W. S. Rosecrans at Chattanooga.

'My action in telegraphing these orders to Chattanooga, in advance of my arrival there, was induced by information furnished me by the Secretary of War of the difficulties with which the Army of the Cumberland had to contend, in supplying itself over a long mountainous and almost impassable road from Stevenson, Alabama, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and his fears that General Rosecrans would fall back to the north side of the Tennessee river. To guard further against the possibility of the Secretary's fears, I also telegraphed to Major-General Thomas on the nineteenth of October, from Louisville, to hold Chattanooga at all hazards, that I would be there as soon as possible. To which he replied, on the same date, 'I will hold the town till we starve.'

"Proceeding directly to Chattanooga, I arrived there on the