any person who may have joined the enemy, and provided that it shall not include any commissioned officers who may have deserted.

The lieutenant-general commanding desires to add the expression of the hope that this last opportunity now presented for wiping out the disgrace which attaches to the characters of these men, and must follow and brand their posterity after them, will be availed of by them, and that he will thus be relieved from the painful duty of making examples of those who, in contempt of the claims of their county upon their services, and in defiance of all law, have not only deserted their standards, but by banding themselves together have rendered the property and lives of peaceable citizens insecure and reduced society to the condition of lawlessness and violence.

The offer of pardon hereby tendered is not confined to soldiers from Mississippi, but is extended to those of other State within this department; and if there be soldiers of other armies absent from their commands within this department who desire to avail themselves of an act of amnesty, the lieutenant-general commanding informs them that upon reporting to Meridian he will intercede with their commanders in their behalf.

By command of Lieutenant-General Polk:

THOS. M. JACK,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

Circulate this.

RICHMOND, April 16, 1864.

Lieutenant General L. POLK,

Demopolis:

Please inform me by telegraph where your infantry force is now located, or if moving, in what direction.

BRAXTON BRAGG,

General.

OKOLONA, April 16, 1864.

Lieutenant-General POLK:

On the 10th instant there were two divisions of infantry and four regiments of cavalry at Decatur, one division infantry at Athens and on their [way] to Nashville, and one division at Huntsville, all under command of Logan, and preparing for a movement in two columns down Jones' Valley in direction of Tuscaloosa and Coosa Valley toward Selma. The commands number about 20,000. Logan's headquarters at Huntsville. I will come to Demopolis.

JAS. M. BURTON.

JACKSON, TENN., [April?] 16, 1864.

(Received 21st.)

Lieutenant-General POLK,

Demopolis:

Yours of 11th instant with General Johnston's dispatch just received. Lieutenant-Colonel Kelley, of my old regiment, arrived yesterday from Tuscumbia. He states there are only two regiments