ORs: (US) Gen. W. S. Smith to Col. J. B. Fry - July 17, 1862

War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
Series 1, Volume 16, Part 2, Page 170

TULLAHOMA,
July 17, 1862.

Col. J. B. FRY:

Colonel Miles [?], of the Third Minnesota, returned from the rebels between Woodbury and McMinnville, just arrived here reports the force that entered Murfreesborough from 2,500 to 3,500 strong, consisting of the First and Second Georgia Cavalry and many armed citizens. The force was at McMinnville with prisoners yesterday morning at 10 o’clock. I withdrew the Wartrace force by authority communicated in General Buell’s dispatch of the 14th instant and when Colonel Hambright thought his force in danger. I abandoned no bridge between this point and Wartrace. I have a regiment intrenched at Duck River, 7 miles from here. At Tullahoma the three batteries of regulars, three regiments of infantry, a battery, and about 700 cavalry, effectives; at Elk River a regiment and a half of infaatry and two companies of
cavalry; one wing of the Twenty-fourth Illinois on its way by train to same point; also a section of battery. The First Ohio is on its way by train to Cowan, and I have directed Colonel Buckley to place another regiment at the same point. This disposition I make on account of information communicated in full in my telegram to-day. I will push stockades and railroad repairs to Nashville with all diligence.

W. S. SMITH.