north, by recruiting colored regiments or otherwise, I will then take the liberty of resuming my request for the organization of the troops serving in this department into an army corps, in order that my command may have the benefits of the same and that a corps staff may be organized as soon as practicable.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Q. A. GILLMORE,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., March 1, 1865.

Brigadier General J. D. WEBSTER,

Chief of Staff, Military Div. of the Mississippi, Savannah, Ga.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 28th of February in reply to my dispatch of the 27th of February. In reply, I have to state that I now hold Georgetown, and have ordered a garrison of from 600 to 800 men, also a dispatch boat, to be sent at once. The following dispatch has just been received from the navy:

Papers of the 25th; Wilmington is ours; captured morning of 22nd; 700 prisoners and 30-guns captured. Rebels destroyed 1,000 bales of cotton and 15,000 barrels of rosin before leaving the city.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Q. A. GILLMORE,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., March 1, 1865.

Bvt. Major General R. SAXTON,

Superintendent of Recruiting, Department of the South:

GENERAL: Great caution should be exercised in giving countenance to State recruiting agents. They should not be allowed to get credit forany recruits except such as are enlisted by their efforts and the additional bounty which they offer. Every man whom they get credited to their respective State quotas that would have enlisted without the interference of these agents, under the inducements which we ourselves can offer, reduces by just that much the force which will be brought into the field under the last call of the President. Such instructions should therefore be given to recruiting officers, and to the mustering and disbursing officer, as will effectually secure the Government against imposition.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Q. A. GILLMORE,

Major-General, Commanding.

(Same to General Littlefield.)

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., March 1, 1865.

Major C. W. THOMAS,

Chief Quartermaster, Department of the South:

MAJOR: The major-general commanding directs me to notify you that Colonel Hallowell's brigade, 1,800 strong, has been ordered from Charleston to Savannah; also that two brigades of General Grover's command