HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, March 10, 1862.

THOMAS A. SCOTT,

Assistant Secretary of War, Cairo:

Flotilla should go down the river as far as possible without engaging any batteries below Point Pleasant. Forts Randolph and Pillow will be turned. No use to engaged them; but I want the navigation of the river as far down as possible. General Curtis has just gained a great victory on Sugar Creek, Ark. Our loss 1,000. I now hope soon to be able to go to the Tennessee.

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General.

GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE MISSOURI, Numbers 59.
Saint Louis, March 10, 1862.

I. The attention of all officers is called to the Army Regulations and orders relating to uniforms. Officers wearing gray or mixed uniforms or overcoats in the field will be arrested and tried for disobedience of orders and neglect of duty.

II. Commanders of divisions, brigades, and regiments will see that no men under their command wear any gray or mixed clothing. Where articles of these proscribed colors have heretofore been duly issued they will be immediately turned into the Quartermaster's Department and others of the proper color issued in their place, without any expense to the soldier.

By command of Major-General Halleck:

N. H. MCLEAN,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DISTRICT OF THE MISSISSIPPI, Numbers 52.
Camp near New Madrid, March 10, 1862.

The following disposition of troops will be made in this district:

The Twenty-second Illinois Volunteers, now at Bird's Point, will be distributed as follows: Four companies at Charleston, two at Bertrand, and four at Sikeston, where the headquarters of the regiment will be established.

One company of the First Illinois Cavalry will take post at Sikeston, the other at Charleston, the major in command fixing his headquarters at Charleston.

The commanding officer at Bird's Point will attend carefully to the security of the railroad from that point to Charleston, keeping such necessary patrols moving backward and forward on the road as will be sufficient to insure its safety.

The garrison at Bird's Point at present will consist of the eighteenth Missouri Volunteers, and will be re-enforced by four companies of the Twenty-second Missouri Volunteers, now at commerce, as soon as the depot can be broken up at that place. The depot at Commerce will be immediately broken up by the officers in charge and all the stores transferred to Bird's Point, where the staff officers now on duty at Commerce will immediately take post, and put themselves in communication with the chief of their respective departments at these headquarters. The brigade surgeon at commerce will take immediate