be no serious danger in taking the Fayetteville route. Do you not use Vera Cruz for Galena, when you say we must go north of Vera Cruz, and probably as far north as Ozark? No forage near Crane Creek.

J. M. SCHOFIELD,

Brigadier-General.

[DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,] January 28, 1863.

Brigadier General JOHN M. SCHOFIELD, Commanding Springfield:

You will halt the army at Crane Creek. I thought I so directed in my last dispatch. Where is it? Vera Cruz is the worst place in America for an army. Keep the force which was at Forsyth at that place at present. Crane Creek is a much more accessible and movable pivot than any other for present purposes.

SAML. R. CURTIS,

Major-General.

SPRINGFIELD, MO., January 28, 1863.

Major-General CURTIS:

Your dispatch is received,and your orders complied with. The First and Second Divisions will be at Crane Creek to-morrow, and the Third at Forsyth. I did not understand your previous orders to remain at Crane Creek, but to move east and south, and to come around the rivers if they obstruct this movement. I did not imagine that my army was to move around Crane Creek, or any other place, as a pivot, but to move forward by one route or the other. I did not propose to go to Vera Cruz because it was a good or bad place to stay at, but as a point on my route to Batesville, or some other place where something can be done.

J. M. SCHOFIELD,

Brigadier-General.

SPRINGFIELD, MO., January 28, 1863.

Major-General CURTIS:

I have ordered the construction of another boat at Forsyth. It will be necessary to move in some direction quickly on account of forage. It is scare even below Forsyth. Much delay in that line will be ruinous, from lack of forage and distance of supplies. In view of the uncertainty of getting supplies by the river, would it not be better to move east and connect directly with Rolla, thus shortening our line and at the same time getting if we can go directly to the Arkansas River; but if we have to stop and send back for supplies, it will prove quite the reverse. It will be better for the army to keep moving slowly than to lie idle without forage.

J. M. SCHOFIELD,

Brigadier-General.

HEADQUARTER ARMY OF THE FRONTIER, Springfield, January 28, 1863.

Colonel WILLIAM WEER, Commanding First Division, Crane Creek:

COLONEL: By direction of the major-general commanding the Department of the Missouri, my orders of yesterday and to-day directing