NEW ORLEANS, August 29, 1864.

(Via Cairo, September 9.)

Major-General SHERMAN:

Your dispatch of the 17th has just reached me. The reduction of Fort Morgan was necessary in order to secure the ingress and egress of heavy vessels. It was handsomely done, but the fort is greatly injured. I have a reserve of 12,000 men up the river to watch Kirby Smith. I do not think he can cross in any force without being discovered in time to prevent it, but I cannot use this force against Mobile and prevent the passage. The route you suggest has been considered, and with 20,000 men we could control the Alabama River from Mobile to Montgomery. Major General Frederick Steele is losing a good many men by expiration of service, and I cannot draw any from him. I asked some time ago that all the troops that could be spared from the West, and were not required for your army, should be sent to Memphis. I will keep the army about Mobile uneasy, and will act against the city and river the moment I can gather a sufficient force.

E. R. S. CANBY,

Major-General.

NASHVILLE, August 29, 1864.

Major-General THOMAS:

GENERAL: You will please see copy of dispatch received from Secretary of War, in reply to my application for the whole of Tennessee to be placed in the Department of the Cumberland:

WASHINGTON, August 29, 1864.

Governor JohnSON:

In order to make the change of department, placing the whole of East Tennessee in the Cumberland Department, General Sherman must be consulted. I have communicated your wish to him and will endeavor to make the change you desire as soon as possible.

E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

I most sincerely hope that all your efforts will be crowned with success while in the front.

ANDREW JohnSON,

Military Governor.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. MIL. DIV. OF THE MISSISSIPPI, Numbers 25.
Nashville, Tenn., August 29, 1864.

In order to carry out the provisions of the act of Congress approved July 2, 1864, and the regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury relative to trade and intercourse with States and parts of States in insurrection, and to make the operations of trade just and fair, both as to the people and to the merchant, the following general rules will be observed in this military DIVISION, as near as the state of the country will permit:

I. All trade is prohibited near armies in the field or moving columns of troops, save that necessary to supply the wants of the troops themselves. Quartermasters and commissaries will take such supplies as are needed in the countries passed through, leaving receipts and taking the articles up on their returns. When cotton is found, and transportation to the rear is easy and does not interfere with the supplies to the