CORINTH, April 29, 1862.

Major-General EARL VAN DORN:

Movements of enemy indicate an advance. It would be well to hurry up your forces.

G. T. BEAUREGARD,

General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE WEST,
Memphis, Tenn., April 29, 1862.

C. F. JACKSON,

Governor of Missouri:

GOVERNOR:I have the honor to inform you that I have just learned that a battle near Corinth is imminent. This and other considerations induce me to say that unless the organization of the State Guards is completed to-morrow it will be impossible for me to provide any further for them.

The army has nearly all gone on. I go in the morning. If the organization of the Guard is completed to-morrow it will at once be on the same footing as the other troops of the Confederacy with respect to supplies of every description. I hope, sir, that in the coming battle the country will not lose the services of so gallant a corps as that under your command.

With great respect, your obedient servant,

EARL VAN DORN,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE WEST,
Memphis, April 29, 1862.

Colonel ROSSER,

Commanding Post, Memphis:

COLONEL: General Beauregard directs that all engines, machinery, &c., not in use on the railroad running to Grenada be at once moved to places of safety. Grenada will do for the present.

Please take measures to have this order executed immediately.

By order of Major-General Earl Van Dorn:

DABNEY H. MAURY,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Corinth, Miss., April 29, 1862.

Colonel THOMAS CLAIBORNE:

COLONEL: The commander of the forces instructs me to inform you that your regiment has been assembled at Trenton for an important service, requiring great vigor and secrecy of movement and the utmost coolness and resolution on the part of officers and men. Colonel Jackson has also been ordered to concentrate his regiment at Trenton for the same purpose.

When both regiments shall have arrived and are ready for the field you will assume command of the expedition and march upon Paducah, Ky., with as much celerity as may be judicious for your animals. You are expected to move with the least possible baggage and subsistence,

30 R R-VOL X, PT II