Lieutenant-General SCOTT:

Inclosed please find original message. Preserve it for future reference.

Very respectfully,

THOMAS A. SCOTT,

Assistant Secretary.

HEADQUARTERS, September 15, 1861.

Brigadier General U. S. GRANT, Cairo, Ill.:

Embark, with as little delay as possible, on the Illinois Central Railroad at Cairo, for Sandoval, the regiments of Colonel Hecker, Twenty-fourth Illinois, Colonel Turchin, Nineteenth Illinois. Transportation will await them there by orders of the President. Answer on receipt of this. Telegraph when they will be there.

J. C. FREMONT,
Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT SOUTHEAST MISSOURI,

Cairo, September 15, 1861.

General JOHN C. FREMONT,

Commanding Department of the West, Saint Louis, Mo.:

SIR: Reconnaissances which I had made yesterday disclose the fact that the enemy have broken up their camp above Belmont, also that they have no force from there to some distance beyond Charleston. As telegraphed by me to-day, I believed they are leaving Columbus; whether marching upon Paducah or leaving Kentucky altogether I will try and determine to-morrow. I have ordered the Tenth Illinois Volunteers, Colonel Morgan commanding, to Fort Holt, to take the place of the Twenty-fourth, leaving to-night, and the Seventh [?] Iowa to Elliott's Mills, near Fort Jefferson, to take the place of the Nineteenth Illinois. I would call your attention to the fact that there are many troops here without arms, and some armed with the Austrian musket, which, with the caps now furnished, is unreliable; also that clothing, camp and garrison equipage, and accouterments are deficient. Requisitions, I am told, are before the proper Department for all these articles. Money is much required here to pay for secret services. It is highly necessary to get information which cannot be obtained from our own reconnoitering parties, and without to pay, the services of citizens cannot much longer be obtained.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

U. S. GRANT,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT SOUTHEAST MISSOURI,
Cairo, Ill., September 15, 1861.

Brigadier General JOHN A. McCLERNAND,

Commanding, &c., Cairo and Bird's Point:

You will please direct Colonel Morgan to move his regiment to Fort Holt this evening to relieve Colonel Hecker, who is under marching