practicable and easy, and that it will have an excellent effect. It is nonsense to suppose that the people of the South are enraged or united by such movements. They reason very differently. They see in them the sure and inevitable destruction of all their property. They realize that the Confederate armies cannot protect them, and they see in the repetition of such raids the inevitable result of starvation and misery. You should not go south of Selma and Montgomery, because south of that line the country is barren and unproductive. I would like to have Forrest hunted down and killed, but doubt if we can do that yet. Whilst you are thus employed I expect to pass through the center of South and North Carolina, and I suppose Canby will also keep all his forces active and busy. I have already secured Pocotaligo and Grahamville, from which I have firm roads into the interior. We are all well.

Yours, truly,

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

EASTPORT, MISS., January 21, 1865.

Honorable C. A. DANA,

Assistant Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:

Your telegram of 10.40 a. m. 17th instant, announcing the capture of Forts Fisher, was received to-day. The good news will be published to the troops of this army at this place. A deputation of citizens of Northern Alabama waited on me yesterday to consult with me as t the best mode of bringing their section back into the Union. I advised them to call a convention of the people living north of the Tennessee river, and adopt the necessary measures in convention for re-establishing civil law in their district,a nd then to make a petition to the President to be admitted into the Union as a section of Alabama, prepared in all respects to perform their duties as loyal citizens of the government of the United States, acknowledging the practical abolition of slavery, and expressing a desire that the institution may never be restored; then to send a delegation to Washington with a copy of the proceedings of the theirs convention and their petition to lay before the President. I think the people are sincere, and hope that they may be encouraged to reorganize civil authority in their district, believing it will greatly facilitate any future efforts that may be made to re-establish civil authority in the State of Alabama, and its restoration to the Union.

GEO. H. THOMAS,

Major-General, U. S. Army, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND,
Eastport, Miss., January 21, 1865-12 m.

Brigadier General J. L. DONALDSON,

Chief Quartermaster, Dept. of the Cumberland, Nashville:

The major-general commanding directs that measures be at once taken to prevent all steamers coming to Eastport, or to any point on the Tennessee River above Paducah, carrying any citizens or other persons, except those who have passes from the proper military authority at Nashville, Louisville, and Paducah, up the river on military business.

ROBT. H. RAMSEY,

Assistant Adjutant-General.