CONFIDENTIAL.] HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,

Hilton Head, S. C., May 11, 1865.

Brigadier-General WASHBURN,

Commanding U. S. Forces, Augusta, Ga.:

GENERAL: You will move with 2,500 men, comprising your own brigade and such other troops as you may select to make up that force, to Milledgeville, Ga., regulating your start and your march so that your advance, which should not be less than 1,500 strong, shall reach that place by the 21st instant, the balance to follow promptly, leaving Augusta, say, on the 17th instant, the moment that the advance of General Molineux's brigade, which has been increased to 2,500 men and ordered up from Savannah, reaches Augusta.

You will quietly and with as little exercise of military power as possible prevent the assembling of the Georgia Legislature, and retain at Milledgeville all members of that body and all State officers who may present themselves thereat until further orders from me. A copy taken from a Savannah newspaper of the proclamation of Governor Brown, directing the Georgia Legislature to meet on the 22nd instant, is herewith inclosed.

Should Bvt. Major General J. H. Wilson be still at Macon or within convenient reach by courier you will send him a copy of these instructions with the further information that I have referred this matter of the contemplated meeting of the Georgia Legislature to the War Department at Washington, and am expecting instructions thereon as early as the 17th instant.

Should you find it necessary to draw supplies from the country, you will be careful to do so through the proper staff officers only, giving receipts therefor upon which the holders will be paid upon presentation at these headquarters. You will forward a detailed statement of all such purchases to these headquarters through intermediate channels.

You will, in general terms, preserve good order and quiet within your lines of military occupation and extend to all loyal people protection in the exercise of their civil rights.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Q. A. GILLMORE,

Major-General of Volunteers.

P. S. --Sent by Major Gourand, assistant inspector-general, Department of the South, who, after showing this to General Grover, commanding District of Savannah, will proceed to Augusta and deliver it to its address in person.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., May 11, 1865.

Honorable A. G. MAGRATH,

Columbia, S. C.:

SIR: I have seen in the public prints what purports to be a proclamation issued by you to the people of the State of South Carolina, dated at headquarters, Columbia, May 2, 1865, directing--

That all subsistence stores and property of the Confederate States within the limits of the State should be turned over to and accounted for by the agents of the State appointed for that purpose. The subsistence and other stores to be used for the relief of the people of the State, and the other property of whatever kind to be held for the common benefit of the State.