PALMETTO, September 22, 1864.

General JOSEPH WHEELER,

Near Tuscumbia:

Send orders to General Williams to return to this army also, if you know where he is.

J. B. HOOD,

General.

PALMETTO, September 22, 1864.

Brigadier General A. R. WRIGHT,

Commanding at Augusta:

Your dispatch received. I have telegraphed to the Government on the subject. You will remain in command until an answer can be received.

J. B. HOOD,

General.

PALMETTO, September 22, 1864.

General A. R. WRIGHT,

Augusta:

I desire the iron should be removed in good condition back to Augusta and saved for future use, and that a large force be employed to remove it as rapidly as possible. After removing the iron, the ties can be burned and gunpowder used to fill up the cuts. I think there will be no difficulty in removing that iron from the vicinity of Lithonia toward the Oconee River. Send to Brigadier-General Reynolds at Athens to order a company of cavalry to picket near Lithonia while this work is being done.

J. B. HOOD,

General.

CIRCULAR.] HDQRS. DEPT. OF ALA., MISS., AND EAST LA.,

Selma, Ala., September 22, 1864.

All contracts which have been entered into by officers in this department on behalf of the Government for the importation of any description of army supplies or merchandise of any kind whatsoever from within the enemy's lines, and for which payment has been contracted to be made in cotton, are hereby annulled.

All officers in this department are prohibited from contracting for the importation of supplies or stores of any description from within the enemy's lines in exchange for cotton.

Hereafter parties who are by law exempt from military service to the Confederates States may bring within the lines of this department articles of ordnance, medical, quartermaster, and commissary stores of such quality and description as are strictly suitable for army use and consumption. These parties, immediately upon their arrival within the lines, will report to officers hereafter to be designated by orders from these headquarters, to whom they will exhibit certified invoices of the goods, together with the prices-current in the localities and at the dates of purchase, as specified in the invoices. If, upon a thorough inspection, the stores are found to be of the description above specified, and the invoices are correct and satisfactory, the articles will be pur-