such other information possible in reference to his duties. If stockades have already been constructed they will be put without delay, and so located as to best protect the brigades, &c.

* * * * *

By order of Brigadier General T. W. Sweeny, commanding:

L. H. EVERTS,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Numbers 98. Washington, March 12, 1864.

The President of the United States orders as follows:

I. Major General H. W. Halleck is, at his own request, relieved from duty as General-in-Chief of the Army, and Lieutenant General U. S. Grant is assigned to the command of the armies of the United States. The headquarters of the army will be in Washington, and also with Lieutenant-General Grant in the field.

II. Major General H. W. Halleck is assigned to duty in Washington as Chief of Staff of the Army, under the direction of the Secretary of War and the lieutenant-general commanding. His orders will be obeyed and respected accordingly.

III. Major General W. T. Sheridan is assigned to the command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, composed of the Departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Arkansas.

IV. Major General J. B. McPherson is assigned to the command of the Department and Army of the Tennessee.

V. In relieving Major-General Halleck from duty as General-in-Chief, the President desires to express his approbation and thanks for the able and zealous manner in which the arduous an responsible duties of that position have been performed.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

PITTSBURG, PA., March 12, 1864.

(Received 4 p. m.)

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Washington, D. C.:

Sherman has sent 10,000 men, under A. J. Smith, up Red River to co-operate with banks on Shreveport. Banks commands in person. Sherman's expedition was eminently successful. I will be in Nashville on Tuesday.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

MORRISTOWN, March 12, 1864.

Major-General. THOMAS and

Brigadier General JOHN A. RAWLINS:

I have the bridge at Strawberry Plains completed, and cars run from there to this place. My troops are much improved in condition and effective strength. The enemy occupies Bull's Gap and