duty until I receive further orders from you. There is much to be done here for over 3 miles on the levee, and the planters are willing to take the whole work upon themselves can they their own necessary help. From information received I should judge there was from 100 to 150 contrabands at Camp Parapet.

Awaiting orders, I am, sir, your most obedient servant,

EDWARD PAGE, JR.,

Captain, Thirty-first Regiment.

Since writing the above General Phelps has sent to me 80 contrabands - men, women, and children - but I have no provisions, and shall therefore draw upon the quartermaster for them.

Having no orders to dismiss the laborers, they will continue their duties.

Respectfully, yours,

EDWARD PAGE, JR.,

Captain, Thirty-first regiment Massachusetts Volunteers.

And to say that, by all means and at all hazards, the officers and men of your command must be prevented from strolling without authority and without right outside of your lines and from interfering (under cover of United States authority) without right in the domestic affairs of the people around about you.

I herewith send you copy of General Orders, No. 32, which may not have reached you, wherein this subject is considered.

I have the honor to be, your most obedient servant,

P. HAGGERTY,

Captain and Aide-de-Camp.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, No. 35.
New Orleans, May 28, 1862.

In view of the arrival of fores from New York, and the speedy opening of this port, reducing the price of provisions, and for the speedy relief of the poor, the chief commissary of subsistence will sell to families for consumption, in small quantities, until further orders, flour and salt meats, viz, pork, beef, ham, and bacon, from the stores of the Army, at 7 1/2 cents per pound for flour and 10 cents for meats.

Place of sale designated hereafter. City bank notes, gold, silver, or Treasury notes to be taken in payment.

By command of Major-General Butler:

R. S. DAVIS,

Captain and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

[MAY 31, 1862.- For Butler to Stanton in reference to arrest of Pierce Soule, see Series II.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, June 1, 1862.

Hon. E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor to inclose the official report of Lieutenant-Colonel Keith, of the Twenty-first Indiana Regiment, of his action in redressing the murders at Houma. His conduct meets most fully my approval and his report is a very creditable one. There is one circumstance,