Brown, and the action taken theron, superseded the necessity of the occupation of Milledgeville by Brevet Brigadier-General Washburn's brigade so long as General Wilson kept troops at that place. Jefferson Davis, and the individuals sent here with him, were all forwarded to Washington, agreeably to General Wilson's request, before the receipt of your letter of the 15th instant. A gun-boat was sent as convoy to the army transport which carried the prisoners. General Orders, Numbers 63, current series, from these headquarters, a copy of which is herewith transmitted, was issued prior to the return of Brevet Brigadier-General Woodford from Washington. * I judge from his report of his interview with yourself and Adjutant-General Townsend that that order, and the policy which it suggests, rather than defines, will meet your approval. Prior to the issue of that order I had send special agents into the interior at different points to talk freely with both whites and blacks, and to recommend them to lose no time in making such arrangements among themselves as would be mutually advantageous to both races for tilling the soil, and for the prosecution of all other industrial pursuits. I shall endeavor, at the present time, when questions of a delicate and difficult character are constantly arising, to confine myself, as closely as the interests of the service and cause will allow, tothe exercise of my appropriate funcions as military commander. When it becomes necessary for me to step beyond this limit I shall, as a matter of course, be government by what I believe to be the views of the War Department and the policy of the General Government.

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

Q. A. GILLMORE,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., May 24, 1865.

Bvt. Major General C. GROVER,

Commanding District of Savannah, Savannah, Ga.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication to my adjutant-general, dated 13th instant, in reply to mine of the 10th, directing you to revoke General Orders, Numbers 29, current series, fromyour headquarters. On the 17th instant I addressed you a letter directing you to start, under the superintendence of Mr. Cann, the three free schools contemplated in your General Orders, Numbers 29, current series, but my letter expressly stated that the composition of the board of education and all other details wuld be left to be arranged after my return from Florida, whither I was then going. I also stated that these details would be arranged in conformity with the principles set forth in my letter to you of the 10th instant. I now find that on the 20th instant you pubished a General Order, Numbers 34, revoking your General Order, Numbers 33, and specificially directing that your General Orders, Numbers 29, go into immediate effect, subjectto any amendments which may hereafter, from time to time, be found necessary. This is, in my judgment, a direct disobedience of my orders as contained in my letters of the 10th and 17th instant, inasmuch as you leave the schools under the control of the board, of which you made Mayor Arnold ex officio the chairman, and continue the policy inaugurated in your Order, Numbers 29, which policy, for the reasons stated in my letter of the 10th, I believed

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*See May 14, p. 498.

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