ber 23. When the letter was written neither the Department nor this office was informed of the extent of your command; otherwise the confidential instructions to General Taylor might have been to some extent modified, or at least you would have been informed of the general tenor of those instructions.

In respect to your telegraphic communication concentring a measure which was regarded here as strictly confidential, I would state that the reference to that telegram in my letter was intended more as a caution than a reproach.

The Secretary trusts that you will be satisfied this disclaimer of any intention to cast reproach on you by reason of the letter of 23rd September.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector-General.

[Addenda.]

RICHMOND, VA., November 5, 1862.

A. G.:

General Cooper read to me a letter addressed to General Ruggles, explanatory of a former letter to him. I approved of it, and presume that it was sent. The general not having received it, a copy will be furnished.

G. W. RANDOLPH,

Secretary of War.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. OF MISS. AND EAST LA.,

No. 3.
Jackson, Miss., October 21, 1862.

Hereafter the Department of Mississippi and East Lousiana will be divided into three military districts, to be under such commanding officers as are herein designated, and whose boundaries will be as follows, viz:

1st. That portion of the State of Mississippi east of the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad and the New Orleans and Jackson Railroad, exclusive of the counties of Mississippi bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, Brigadier-General Ruggles commanding; headquarters at Jackson, Miss.

2nd. That portion of the State of Mississippi included between the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad, the Mississippi River, and the Big Black River, Brigadier General M. L. Smith commanding; headquarters at Vicksburg, Miss.

3rd. That portion of the State of Mississippi included between the Big. Black and the Mississippi Rivers and the New Orleans and Jackson Railroad; also that portion of Lousiana east of the Mississippi River, together with such counties of the State Mississippi as border on the Gulf of Mexico, Brigadier General W. N. R. Beall commanding; headquarters at Port Hudson, La.

The military districts will be designed as herein set forth, viz:

First, Second, and Third.

Officers commanding military districts will make all reports direct to department headquarters, and will see that such be promptly made.

By order of Lieutenant-General Pemberton:

R. W. MEMMINGER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.