HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY WASHINGTON, D.C., October 16, 1863

Major-General U. S. Grant, Louisville.

General:  You will receive herewith the orders of the President of the United States, placing you in command of the Departments of the Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee.  The organization of these departments will be changed as you may deem most practicable.  You will immediately proceed to Chattanooga, and relieve General Rosecrans.  You can communicate with Generals Burnside and Sherman by telegraph.  A summary of the orders sent to these officers will be sent to you immediately.  It is left optional with you to supersede General Rosecrans by General G. H. Thomas or not.  Any other changes will be made on your request by telegram.

One of the first objects requiring your attention is the supply of your armies.  Another is the security of the passes in the Georgia mountains, to shut out the enemy from Tennessee and Kentucky.  You will consult with General Meigs and Colonel Scott in regard to transportation and supplies.

Should circumstances permit, I will visit you personally in a few days for consultation.

H. W. Halleck, General-in-Chief.

Headquarters of the army
Washington, D. C., October 20, 1868.

Major-General grant, Louisville.

General:  In compliance with my promise, I now proceed to give you a brief statement of the objects aimed at by General Rosecrans and General Burnside’s movement into East Tennessee, and of the measures directed to be taken to attain these objects.

It has been the constant desire of the government, from the beginning of the war, to rescue the loyal inhabitants of East Tennessee from the hands of the rebels, who fully appreciated the importance of continuing their hold upon that country.  In addition to the large amount of agricultural products drawn from the upper valley of the Tennessee, they also obtained iron and other materials from the vicinity of Chattanooga.  The possession of East Tennessee would cut off one of their most important railroad communications, and threaten their manufactories at Rome, Atlanta, etc.

When General Buell was ordered into East Tennessee in the summer of 1882, Chattanooga was comparatively unprotected; but Bragg reached there before Buell, and, by threatening his communications, forced him to retreat on Nashville and Louisville.  Again, after the battle of Perryville, General Buell was urged to pursue Bragg’s defeated army, and drive it from East Tennessee.  The same was urged upon his successor, but the lateness of the season or other causes prevented further operations after the battle of Stone River.

Last spring, when your movements on the Mississippi River had drawn out of Tennessee a large force of the enemy, I again urged General Rosecrans to take advantage of that opportunity to carry out his projected plan of campaign, General Burnside being ready to cooperate, with a diminished but still efficient force.  But he could not be persuaded to act in time, preferring to lie still till your campaign should be terminated.  I represented to him, but without avail, that by this delay Johnston might be able to reenforce Bragg with the troops then operating against you.