HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF ALA., MISS., AND EAST LA.,
Meridian, December 17, 1864.

Major General D. H. MAURY,

Commanding District of the Gulf, Mobile:

GENERAL: I am instructed by the lieutenant-general commanding to state to you as follows:

Unless the most reliable information which he can gather is at fault any investment or serious attack of Mobile at this time is improbable. The movements of the enemy from Baton rouge and Pensacola are evidently raids, and intended to occupy the attention of the troops in and about Mobile and prevent their use in other important localities. The best information indicates that Davidson's force hardly exceeded 3,000 men, while the raiding party now operating against Pollard does not exceed 1,000 or 1,500. With the troops at your disposal the party now at Pollard ought not to be allowed to escape to Pensacola. The impunity with which they have made previous expeditions to that point has emboldened the enemy, and vigorous measures, with rapid concentration on your part, should enable you to crush them. The reports relative tot he force at Pascagoula are extremely confused and conflicting, and steps should be taken to prevent officers on outpost duty from forwarding loose and inaccurate statements and reports which they surely take no means to verify, and which serve only to excite the public mind, while they tend to demoralize our troops by the frequency of false alarms. If, as it occurs tot he lieutenant-general commanding, the troops on the west side of the bay can be rapidly thrown against the enemy at or near Pollard, it should be done speedily and the raiding party destroyed, captured, or driven into Pensacola. Any lodgement made by the enemy at East Pascagoula should, if possible, be broken up. A rapid movement to that point in force might be effected so as to surprise them; or if any force of, say, from 4,000 to 6,000 (which is the extent of the number which can concentrate at any point south of Vicksburg) should come out toward Mobile it should be met at once. It is of the greatest importance that the troops belonging to General Hood's army should be sent forward to him without delay as soon as they can possible be spared, and this necessity operates in favor of vigorous and speedy steps toward ridding your district of the threatening presence of these parties of the enemy. The summary punishment of officers sending false reports, or those which they have no duly verified and authenticated by proper vigilance and caution, would doubtless have a salutary effect in checking the wild and vague information which they so often forward. I advised you by telegraph of the disposition made by Colonel Brent from Montgomery of troops sent toward Pollard. Concert of action between the officers commanding above and below Pollard is of great moment, and if communication has not been already opened it should at once be done.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM M. LEVY,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant and Inspector General.

NEAR FORT CHISWELL, December 17, 1864-12 m.

Major J. STODDARD JOHNSTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Dublin:

MAJOR: I have met here a scouting party just from Wytheville. They report the enemy to have evacuated the place at 2 o'clock this