Colonel Osband goes forward for his camp equipage, arms, &c., and will return in a few days. He has been eminently successful in recruiting, having his regiment nearly full and a mule or a horse for every recruit.

Accompanying please find manifest of cargoes of boats and a statement of that which is on the gun-boats, but the later of which I am not personally accountable for, as they claim to be a separate institution, and though it was difficult to convince me of the fact, yet, as advised by General Sherman, I did not dispute the point of rank.

Respectfully,

JAS. H. COATES,

Colonel Eleventh Illinois Infantry, Commanding Expedition.

Brigadier-General McARTHUR,

Commanding Post and Defenses, Vicksburg, Miss.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES,
Yazoo City, Miss., March 2, 1864.

GENERAL: I have the honor to transmit herewith a report of all the cotton taken on expedition up Yazoo River. There may perhaps be a few more bales on transports than is reported; if so, it is Government cotton and taken from abandoned places. The amount reported includes lot of 190 bales shipped on steamer Emma Boyd, and been reported. I also send report of cotton bought by private parties as per permit from Treasury Department, and shipped on steamers Hastings and Mattie Cook. The following is a statement of amounts on Government boats: Steamer Sioux City, 400; steamer J. H. Lacey, 192; steamer Des Moines, 228; steamer Minnehaha, 443; steamer Emma Boyd, 190; steamer Sir William Wallace, 68; bales on transports, 1,521; amount on gun-boat fleet and in possession of Captain E. K. Owen, 207; total amount, 1,728.

By order of Colonel J. H. Coates, Eleventh Illinois Infantry, commanding post:

J. W. BREWSTER,

Lieutenant Eleventh Illinois Infantry and A. A. Q. M.

Brigadier-General McARTHUR,

Commanding Post of Vicksburg.

HEADQUARTERS ELEVENTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY,
Vicksburg, Miss., March 11, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor herewith to present you the following report of Yazoo River expedition, of which I had the honor to commanding:

Pursuant to orders from Seventeenth Army Corps headquarters, and special instructions from Major-General Sherman, I embarked my command on the 31st of January last, consisting of the Eleventh Illinois Infantry, Major George C. McKee commanding (numbering 21 commissioned officers and 539 enlisted men), and Eighth Louisiana Infantry, African descent, Lieutenant Colonel F. E. Peebles commanding (numbering 17 commissioned officers and 370 enlisted men), on