HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SAVANNAH,
Savannah, Ga., March 27, 1865.

ASSISTATN ADJUTNT- GENERAL, Hdqrs. Dept. of the South:

SIR: The flag- of- truce boat has returned from up the river, and the first load of the wives and children of ebel officers, sixty in number, will leave here next Thursday to be delivered on baord a bot from Augusta at poor Robin, over 100 miles up the Savannah River.

C. GROVER,

Brevet Major- General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., March 27, 1865.

Brigadier General J. P. HATCH, Commanding, &c., Charleston, S. C.:

GENRAL: Brigadier-General potter has been directed verbally to report to you to talk of the expedition to Sumterville and Florence. Rendezvous the command with as little delay and as quietly as possible at Georgetown. Its strength and compositon is to be as follows: Two thousand five hundred infnatry, one section of artillery, fifty cavalry (or more, if you can spare them), sixty to seventy engineers. The men should carry forty rounds of ammunition in their cartidge- boxes and there days' rations of hard bread, sugar, and coffee in their haversacks, with a reserve of fotty or fity rounds of ammuniltion and eight days' rations of bread, sugar, and coffee on pack animals. One hundred and fifty pack- saddles are sent you. I want no wagons with the cdommand if it can be avoided.

The only tools which the engineers witll require are axed, shvels, and agugurs, and these the men must carry. It would be well to issue an ax and a shovel to each infantry ocmpnay. General potter and myself have talked the matter over pretty thoroughly, and he is in possessin of my views.

The medical director has been directed to send five or six ambulances with the command, and to designate a suitable medical officer to go with it as senior.

Dispatch is quite necessary int he preparations. I expect to be at Geoargetwon on Friday morning.

Ver4y respectfully, your obeient servant,

Q. A. GILLMORE,

Major- General of Volunteers.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
March 27, 1865.

Rear- Admiral DAHLGREN,

Commanding South Atlantic Blockading Squadron:

ADMIRAL: General Hatch, commanding at Charleston, informed me on the 20th insntat that he had requested your assistance in examining the Santee River and some of the streams flowing into Winyah Bay with a view to the selection of the best route for an expedition to reach Sumterville and Florence, S. C. Brigadier- General Potter will command the expeditiion, and I respectfully request for him such co- operation as you may be willing and able to affored. General potter has been directed to confer with you upon thils matter.

I am, sir, resepctfully, your obedient servant,

Q. A. GILLMORE,

Major- Geneal of Volunteers.