"Having given you my views of the Tennessee river on my return from the West, showing that this river is the true strategical key to overcome the rebels in the southwest, I beg again to recur to the importance of its adoption. This river is never impeded by ice in the coldest winter, as the Mississippi and the Cumberland sometimes are. I ascertained, when in St. Louis, that the gunboats then fitting out could not retreat against the current of the western rivers, and so stated to you; besides, their principal guns are placed forward and will not be very efficient against an enemy below them. The fighting would have to be done by their stern guns--only two; or if they anchored by the stern they would lose the advantage of motion, which would prevent the enemy from getting their range. Our gunboats at anchor would be a target which the enemy will not be slow to improve and benefit thereby. "The Tennessee river, beginning at Paducah fifty miles above Cairo, after leaving the Ohio, runs across south-southeast, rather than through Kentucky and Tennessee, until it reaches the Mississippi line directly west of Florence and Tuscumbia, which lie fifty miles east, and Memphis, one hundred and twenty-five miles west, with the Charleston and Memphis railroad eight miles from the river. There is no difficulty in reaching this point at any time of the year, and the water is known to be deeper than on the Ohio. "If you will look on the map of the Western States you will see in what a position Buckner would be placed by a strong advance up the Tennessee river. He would be obliged to back out of Kentucky, or, if he did not, our forces could take Nashville in his rear and compel him to lay down his arms." Testimony of Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of War, to Hon. Jacob M. Howard, chairman of the Military Committee, to consider the claim presented by Miss Carroll in 1870: PHILADELPHIA, _June 24, 1870_. On or about the 30th of November, 1861, Miss Carroll, as stated in her memorial, called on me, as the Assistant Secretary of War, and suggested the propriety of abandoning the expedition which was then preparing to descend the Mississippi, and to adopt instead the Tennessee river, and handed to me the plan of campaign, as appended to her memorial; which plan I submitted to the Secretary of War, and its general ideas were adopted. On my return from the southwest in 1862 I informed Miss Carroll, as she states in her memorial, that through the adoption of this plan the county had been saved millions, and that it entitled her to the kind consideration of Congress. THOMAS A. SCOTT. * * * * * To the Military Committee, appointed for that purpose in 1872: Hon. JACOB M. HOWARD, of the Military Committee of the United States Senate. Again: