"Your note is just received. I have no doubt that nothing will occur to-day, more than some picket-firing. The enemy is saucy, but got the worst of it yesterday, and will not press our pickets far. I will not be drawn out far, unless with certainty of advantage; and I do not apprehend anything like an attack upon our position." A little later in the day, General Sherman wrote to Grant: "I infer that the enemy is in some considerable force at Pea Ridge [another name for Monterey]; that yesterday they crossed a bridge with two regiments of infantry, one regiment of cavalry, and one battery of field-artillery, to the ridge on which the Corinth road lays. They halted the infantry and artillery at a point about five miles in my front, and sent a detachment to the house of General Meeks, on the north of Owl Creek, and the cavalry down toward our camp. This cavalry captured a part of our advance pickets, and afterward engaged two companies of Colonel Buckland's regiment, as described by him in his report herewith enclosed. Our cavalry drove them back upon their artillery and infantry, killing many and bringing ten prisoners (all of the First Alabama Cavalry), whom I send you." General Grant on the same day despatched to General Halleck: "Just as my letter of yesterday to Captain McLean, Assistant Adjutant-General, was finished, notes from Generals McClernand's and Sherman's assistant adjutant-generals were received, stating that our outposts had been attacked by the enemy, apparently in considerable force. I immediately went up, but found all quiet. The enemy took two officers and four or five of our men prisoners, and wounded four. We took eight prisoners and killed several. Number of the enemy's wounded not known. They had with them three pieces of artillery, and cavalry and infantry. How much cannot, of course, be estimated. I have scarcely the faintest idea of an attack (general one) being made upon us, but will be prepared should such a thing take place. General Nelson's division has arrived. The other two, of Buell's column, will arrive to-morrow or next day. It is my present intention to send them to Hamburg, some four miles above Pittsburg, when they all get here. From that point to Corinth the road is good, and a junction can be formed with the troops from Pittsburg at almost any point. Colonel McPherson has gone with an escort to-day to examine the defensibility of the ground about Hamburg, and to lay out the position of the camp, if advisable to occupy that place." Earlier on the same day General Grant also telegraphed to General Halleck: "The main force of the enemy is at Corinth, with troops at different points east. Small garrisons are also at Bethel, Jackson, and Humboldt. The number at these places seems constantly to change. The number of the enemy at Corinth, and within supporting distance of it, cannot be far from eighty thousand men." General Halleck was preparing to leave St.