SAINT LOUIS, February 18, 1862.

Major-General McCLELLAN:

The flag of the Union is floating in Arkansas. General Curtis has driven Price from Missouri, and is several miles across the Arkansas line, cutting up Price's rear and hourly capturing prisoners and stores. The Army of the Southwest is doing its duty nobly.

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. SOUTHWESTERN DIST. OF MO., Numbers 90.
Sugar Creek, Ark., February 18, 1862.

The general commanding directs me to announce to the soldiers of this district tidings of success, which he has received through Major-General Halleck, by our comrades elsewhere.

Our gunboats have triumphantly penetrated Florence, Ala. A great victory has been won by the Army and Navy in taking Roanoke Island, in North Carolina, where 300 of the enemy were killed, 1,000 wounded, and 2,500 taken prisoners.

The general also expresses his great satisfaction to the troops of this command for their courage, fidelity, and endurance manifested in this campaign.

You have moved in the most inclement weather, over the worst of roads, making extraordinary long marches, subsisting mainly on meat without salt, and for the past six days you have been under the fire of the fleeing enemy. You have driven him out of Missouri, restored the Union flag to the virgin soil of Arkansas, and triumphed in two contests, the last with a portion of the combined forces of Price and McCulloch in their stronghold, and I trust you will receive the gratified thanks of your friends and your country.

In your rapid pursuit of the foe and the cravings of actual hunger, the peaceable citizens through whose country we have passed should forgive some acts of spoliation which are incident to war under such pressing circumstances, but the commanding general will again call the attention of his officers and men to his General Orders, Numbers 3, and express him hopes that soldiers that have done themselves much honor will not soil it by acts of folly, cruelty, or dissipation.

Let us show the people everywhere that our tents and knapsacks are not disgraced with plunder, and that the old flag of the Union is the only emblem of power, peace, and safety to society, and the only flag that deserves their regard and affection.

And let the people of Arkansas rally to a banner raised by our fathers as the emblem of civil and religious liberty, and restore to our whole country that peace and prosperity which have so long distinguished us among the nations of the earth.

By order of Brigadier General S. R. Curtis:

T. I. McKENNY,
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI, Saint Louis, February 20, 1862.

Brigadier-General CULLUM,,

Cairo, Ill.:

Commerce is selected as the depot for General Pope's command. He