company as a very suitable one for this business, as the most of them know the woods in Clarke, Jones, Jasper, and Wayne, and I think perhaps you would not hesitate so much to send them as you would a more efficient company, the company being made up principally of old men and boys.

I remain, colonel, your obedient and humble servant, very respectfully,

H. C. KELLEY,

Lieutenant and Provost-Marshal.

[Indorsement.]

DEPT. OF ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, AND EAST LOUISIANA, OFFICE OF PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL,

Meridian, July 31, 1864.

Respectfully referred to inspector-general of department, with the remark that in my opinion a cavalry company should be ordered to the counties within named to break up and arrest the roving bands of deserters therein.

THOS. T. TAYLOR,

Provost-Marshal-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS FORREST'S CAVALRY, Numbers 68.
Okolona, July 30, 1864.

I am instructed by Brigadier-General Chalmers, commanding to say that you will have your entire command supplied with ten days' rations to the man, from the 3rd day of August proximo; five days' rations of this will be drawn in hard bread. You will also have your entire command supplied with 100 rounds of ammunition to the man. No furloughs will be granted and all absentees must be called in.

By order of Brigadier-General Chalmers, commanding:

W. H. BRAND,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

ENGINEER BUREAU, WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,

Richmond, Va., July 30, 1864.

General D. H. MAURY,

Commanding, &c., Mobile, Ala.:

GENERAL: A large portion of the railroad iron of the Alabama and Florida Railroad has been impressed by the Government, which has succeeded in securing all except about five miles now lying idle and rusting on the road-bed. Lieutenant Colonel Minor Meriwether (headquarters Demopolis, Ala.), charged as commissioner to secure this iron for the Government, writes that it will be impossible to secure this iron except by taking it as a military necessity. The matter has been before the courts time and again, but still new injunctions and legal obstacles have been successfully interposed, and it is understood that Mr. Avery, president of the company, is ready and prepared to secure an injunction in Florida. The iron was absolutely needed by the Government before the recent raids in Georgia and Alabama, but now the case is so perfectly clear and one of such absolute necessity that I can-

47 R R-VOL XXXIX, PT II