brigade is relieved at Oak Ridge by one from the Third Division: The Sixth Iowa do the Second Brigade; the Forty-eight Illinois to the Third Brigade.

5. Until the return to this command of the many general officers belonging to it, the senior officer present for duty will command the several divisions and brigades, and will be held accountable for the drill, instruction, and records. Besides the daily guard-mounting and parade, the roll-calls prescribed by Regulations, and drills heretofore ordered, division commanders will give special attention to the arms, ammunition, and equipments of their commands, and see that all things material to the service are now procured. A system of book instruction should be instituted in all the brigades, that the officers and men now on duty may become qualified to impart proper instructions to all recruits and conscripts to which we are entitled to fill our ranks. We have now passed safely the hot and sickly season of Mississippi, and can safely go to work.

By order of Major General W. T. Sherman:

R. M. SAWYER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

SHERMAN'S HEADQUARTERS, August 30, 1863

General GRANT, Vicksburg:

We have taken 2 men in arms who profess to belong to Pinson's cavalry, detached, they say, along with 11 others who escaped into the canebrake. These men have no uniform, no marks of a soldier's dress; are not even dressed alike, and are clothed as citizens. We should not treat such men as soldiers. We should insist on their soldiers wearing a uniform-something to distinguish them from the common citizen. Shall I proceed against them as spies? At the time of capture they were fully equipped, were outside of our lines dogging one of our mounted parties coming back from a regular scout. I wish I had made this point by flag of truce yesterday,

but it will do for the next.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General.

VICKSBURG, MISS., August 30, 1863.

General SHERMAN:

Send in the prisoners you have taken without uniform, to be confined in jail until their case can be made the subject of a communication. I shall leave here to-morrow for New Orleans. In my absence you can send the communication. I will probably be gone ten days.

U. S. GRANT,

Major-General.

SHERMAN'S HEADQUARTERS, August 30, 1863.

General GRANT, Vicksburg:

I will send in the 2 prisoners, with written charges, list of witnesses, &c. I will prepare with great care, after reading all of Halleck's orders on the subject, a letter to General Lee, and take the plain ground