WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Richmond, Va., December 26, 1863.

Lieutenant Gen. L. POLK,

Commanding,&c., Brandon, Miss.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to inclose for your information an extract a letter addressed by General T. N. Waul to the President, and by him referred to this Department. Your attention is especially invited to the statements as to the passage of the Mississippi River, and the suggestion respecting the command of that river by the employment of light artillery.

Very respectfully,

JAMES A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War.

ENTERPRISE, December 26, 1863.

General PILLOW,

Montgomery:

A dispatch to General Johnston from you before he was relieved informed him of your being ordered to report to General Hardee, and that an officer was required to whom you could turn over your department. I am directed by the lieutenant-general commanding to ask you to name the most competent officer among your subordinates for that purpose, to order him to Montgomery to turn over the command to him, and to put him in possession of all your official papers and such information as may enable him to take charge of and administer its duties. I am directed also to request you to furnish a list of 20 of the most competent and efficient officers of your command, enrolling their names in order of merit.

THOS. M. JACK,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

RICHMOND, December 26, 1863.

Lieutenant Gen. W. J. HARDEE,

Dalton, Ga.:

Brigadier-General Liddell is borne on my returns as commander of our Arkansas brigade in Army of Tennessee. It is understood he has been ordered to Trans-Mississippi Department. By whose order was this done, and did he command the brigade for which you recommend Colonel Govan?

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE,

No. 229.
Dalton, Ga., December 26, 1863.

The commander of the forces sees with pain the leniency with which crimes and offenses of an aggravated nature are treated by

courts-martial. Adequate, prompt, and certain punishment for commission of offenses is essential to the preservation of the discipline,