HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., February 28, 1865.

Bvt. Major General C. GROVER,

Commanding Savannah Dist., Dept. of the South, Savannah, Ga.:

GENERAL: The major-general commanding directs that you hold two brigades of your command that can be best spared in readiness to embark, to be sent beyond the limits of this department. You will call in all detailed men belonging to the regiments of these brigades, and report by letter and by telegraph the brigades thus selected and their aggregate strength. Four hundred men belonging to your command arrived to-day from the North and will be forwarded to you at once. A sufficient force necessary to replace the above brigades will be sent to Savannah without delay. Steamers will be sent to Savannah to-morrow to receive one brigade and transportation for the balance as soon as posible.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. L. M. BURGER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NORTH CAROLINA,
Wilmington, February 28, 1865.

Lieutenant General U. S. GRANT,

Commanding Armies of the United States, City Point, Va.:

GENERAL: I have just received your letter of the 24th. Please accept my thanks for your generous appreciation of our success in the capture of Wilmington. My latest information of General Sherman is that on the 24th one of his main columns was about midway between Columbia and Charlotte, and the other seventeen miles from Camden on the road to Fayetteville. This comes from the mail carrier from Fayetteville, and is throught by those who know him to be reliable. I had supposed General Sherman farther advanced, bu the roads are bad, and he probably has to move quite slowly. Very heavy rains have fallen lately. The roads in this region are very bad, but they will dry very quickly after the rain ceases. In the region General Sherman is marching through the mud will last much longer. I have men out to get information of his movements, but I find it extremely difficult to obtain any one at all trustworthy who is willing to carry a dispatch to him; but I hope to get one to-morrow. General Sherman can send to me much more easily, and no doubt has already done so. Hardee was ordered to this place from Charleston, but we came in just in time to cut him off. He then turned toward Fayetteville. I think Hoke will go in the same direction, and both try to unite with Beauregard about Greensborough. This I derive from a telegraph operator's report of the correspondence between Bragg and Hardee the day before we got Wilmington. My wagons and animals are coming very slowly. Storm and fog have made it impossible to cross Cape Fear bar fro nearly all the time for several days. It must be four or five days yet before we can fairly begin work on the railroad. I had hoped much more from Palmer's movement, but he had done nothing. Instead of pushing out as ordered, he came here to see me about it, and was detained by the fog. He probably did not get back until to-day. I sent Cox back with him with orders to take command and move forward at once, so that the railroad could be repaired. I intend to move from here by the 5th or 6th with whatever transportation I can get by that time. If the rail-