Jno. A. Rawlins to T. Lyle Dickey, December 6, 1862

Oxford, Miss., December 6, 1862.

Col. T. LYLE DICKEY, Commanding Cavalry Division :

Rest your borses and men where you are, and when sufficiently recruited strike to the east and destroy the Mobile and Ohio Railroad as much as possible. As stated by me in a previous dispatch it would be a great strike to reach Columbus and destroy armories and machineshops there.

The cavalry force you will have with you can subsist on the country through which you pass. The plundering propensity exhibited by some of the cavalry should be suppressed as far as practicable. This can be partially done by making a detail from each regiment and charging them with procuring rations and forage for their regiments and _ replacing broken-down animals.

There is no depot of supplies here or I would forward some to you. Let me know how soon you can start, and I will relieve you by making an infantry and artillery demonstration in the same direction.

U. S. GRANT, Major-General.

OXFORD, Miss., December 6, 1862. Brig. Gen. GRENVILLE M. DopcE, Corinth, Miss. :

The general commanding has communicated with the general commanding Confederate forces on the subject of army surgeons who are captured having the right to retain their horses and other private property, indicating his willingness to let them take with them when released everything that is uecessary to enable them to perform their vocations

in the field, but has not yet received a reply, and until he does their horses and surgical instruments will be held, they having set the example in depriving our surgeons when captured of such property.

By order of Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant :

Assistant Adjutant-General.