mustered into service. The officer who was regularly received into the regiment, under proper authority, will retain his position. As there is nothing in the documents before me which would enable me to determine upon this point, I am at a loss how to render a decision until the necessary information is obtained.

HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Alexandria, La., April 19, 1863.

Lieutenant General T. H. HOLMES,

Commanding, &c., Little Rock, Ark.,

General Stevenson telegraphs from Vicksburg that eight gunboats passed the bend; two apparently disabled, one burned and sunk, and five passed on down. The enemy have one division on Bayou Vidal and one on Bayou Roundaway. Please hasten Walker's movements. When [J. G.] Walker starts, telegraph to Monroe and Camden for all the boats in the river to be at Camden to transport him. If the enemy advance toward Monroe, send a portion of your force to occupy Camden, to prevent the destruction of that depot. Taylor is fighting in Lower Louisiana, and needs field ammunition. Major [Thomas G.] Rhett has been written to for as much as can be spared.

E. KIRBY SMITH,

Lieutenant- General, Commanding.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT, Numbers 5.
Alexandria, La., April 20, 1863.

The following officers are announced upon the staff of the commanding general: Colonel Duncan Cage and First Lieutenant J. Compton French, volunteer aides-de-camp; Surg. John M. Haden, medical director, and Surg. S. A. Smith, medical director of department hospitals.

By command of Lieutenant General E. Kirby Smith:

J. F. BELTON,

Assistant Adjutant- General.

HEADQUARTERS NORTHWESTERN ARKANSAS,
Ozark, April 21, 1863.

Lieutenant- General HOLMES,

Commanding District of Arkansas:

GENERAL: I have the honor to inform you that, being entirely out of forage for my horses and bread for my men, I will be compelled to join General Steele. My horses have had but one feed of corn since the morning of the 17th, and that one half ration, and have been subsisting on wheat on a field purchased of a farmer here, and the remainder of the fields belonged to men in the Federal service. I shall leave three companies of [j.f.] Hill's battalion at Clarksville for the present; two companies of the same battalion and [Caleb] Dorsey's squadron at this place for the present. The remainder of my command, which will be [J. C.] Monroe's and [c. a.] Carroll's regiments, Brown's and Palmer's independent companies, I will take, and join General Steele at once. I have heard nothing from Colonel [William a.] Crawford. Colonel.