Numbers 2. Report of Lieutenant Colonel James Stuart, Tenth Illinois Cavalry.

HEADQUARTERS TENTH ILLINOIS CAVALRY,
Fayetteville, Ark., January 28, 1863.

GENERAL: I have the honor to report, for your information, that I proceeded from this place on a scout to Van Buren, Ark., in command of 150 men of the Tenth Illinois Cavalry and First Arkansas Cavalry, on the 23rd instant, by the way of the Frog Bayou road, and arrived at Van Buren on the 24th.

I received information that a steamboat had gone up the river to Fort Smith for men and stores for the enemy. On my arrival at Van Buren, I placed a patrol guard on the bank of the river to watch for the boat, and with the remaining portion of my command patrolled the town, taking 25 Confederate soldiers prisoners, who were on their way to For Smith with their arms, horses, &c. About half an hour after daybreak the next morning, the boat was reported coming down the river,and I made my arrangements to receive her. I brought her opposite the levee, and found 1 lieutenant, 1 surgeon, and 246 men on board, on their way to Little Rock. Part of the men were sick. I paroled all of them, and allowed the boat to proceed. I inclose herewith a list* of all the prisoners taken and paroled during my scout, namely, 3 lieutenants and 246 men. I likewise ascertained that General Steele, of texas, was in command at Fort Smith, with from 400 to 500 men. A skeleton brigade of Texas troops had passed up through there two days before, who had ninety days' furlough to go to Texas and recruit up. I am likewise informed from a reliable source that the Choctaw, Creek, and Cherokee Nation are anxious to join our forces. All they want is a nucleus to form on.

I had quite a likely skirmish with a small body of the enemy across the river, at Van Buren, on the 25th, but soon dispersed them with one of my howitzers, which I had along. Several of the enemy were seen to fall from their horses, and, I presume, were either killed or wounded. None of my men were hit, although the bullets fell thick for a short time.

After remaining in Van Buren from the evening of the 24th instant until 10 o'clock on the 26th, I started for the post, a which place I arrived on the evening of the 27th instant.

Your obedient servant,

JAMES STUART,

Lieutenant-Colonel Tenth Illinois Cavalry.

[Major General JOHN M. SCHOFIELD.]

JANUARY 27, 1863.-Affair at Bloomfield, Mo.

Congratulatory orders from Brigadier-General Carr.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS SAINT LOUIS DISTRICT, Numbers 4.
Saint Louis, Mo., February 2, 1863.

The brigadier-general commanding the district has heard with pleasure of the affair of the 27th ultimo, in which Colonel [James] Lindsay, Sixty-

---------------

*Not found.

---------------