II. The post quartermaster, Captain Fitch, will assign specially to Colonel Grierson the property hereby directed, and may include one or more of the vacant cotton-sheds close by for stables, but in no case must any building be taken or appropriated until aa specific assignment has been made of it by an officer of the Quartermaster's Department. The regiment will keep in use its wagons and tents and be prepared always for active field service.

III. The provost guard will vacate these premises, and their headquarters hereafter will be at the Irving Block.

By order of Major General W. T. Sherman:

J. H. HAMMOND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

STEAM-RAM SWITZERLAND,

Mound City, Ill., October 14, 1862.

Ho. E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

I have the honor to forward you the report* of my nephew, Medical Cadet Charles Rivers Ellet, respecting his late expedition down the river to near Vicksburg. He informs me that his boats were repeatedly fired into by the bands of guerrillas from the shore, and had several sharp engagements. My boats are now all in good repair, and I shall resume my efforts to break up these bands immediately.

Very respectfully, &c.,

ALFRED W. ELLET,

Colonel, Commanding Ram Fleet.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE,

Numbers 221.
Jackson, Tenn., October 14, 1862.

* * * * * * *

XII. Major General J. B. McPherson is hereby assigned to the command of the United States forces at Bolivar, Tenn., and will report to Major-General Hurlbut, commanding Second Division, District of

West Tennessee.

* * * * * * *

By order of Major General U. S. Grant:

JNO. A. RAWLINS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

WASHINGTON, CITY, October 15, 1862.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

In compliance with your request I have the honor to submit a plan for the organization of the army designed to form the Mississippi expedition:

Twenty-four thousand infantry, 1,000 sharpshooters, 400 Sappers and Miners, 3,000 cavalry, 1,500 light artillery, 100 heavy artillery.

Number and caliber of guns required to arm ten batteries of light

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*See report of attack on the U. S. steam-ram Queen of the West, near Bolivar, Miss., September 19, 1862, Part I, p. 139.

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