disposed of as may be most advisable. I shall try and meet you at your headquarters, or at Louisville, on next Thursday.

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

E. KIRBY SMITH,

Lieutenant-General.

HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Shreveport, La., December 3, 1863.

Colonel ISAAC F. HARRISON,

Vienna, La.:

COLONEL: I inclose you copies of two communications from General J. E. Johnston to Lieutenant-General Smith,* the nature of which you will at once perceive. Lieutenant-General Smith directs me to say he wishes you to take charge of the crossing of these arms. Trusting to your own energy and activity, he feels confident that a business so important could not be placed in better hands. He wishes you to put yourself at once in communication with General Johnston, that the time and place of crossing may be definitely settled upon. It will be necessary for you to take 30 wagons, and, if they cannot be otherwise obtained, those belonging to regiments must be taken. If necessary, you must use your whole force to cover the crossing and conveying of these arms within our lines. They will be delivered at Vienna, when further orders will be given. The lieutenant-general commanding desires me to impress upon you the importance of keeping this matter as secret as possible. Captain A.h. Baker is ordered to report to you as agent for the Ordnance Department, and, after the wagons are loaded, will, under your directions, have special charge of the train.

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

S. S. ANDERSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,

No. 60.
Shreveport, La., December 3, 1863.

I. On the first day of each month officers of the subsistence department will make a list of prices of the stores on hand, which will be the ruling prices for the month for sales and for invoices. The basis for these prices must be the average first cost of the articles respectively. If the articles received are of the tax in kind, their value will be in accordance with the schedule of prices as arranged by the board of commissioners for the State, appointed pursuant to the impressment act, published in General Orders, No. 37, Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, Richmond, Va., April 6, 1863.

II. For service with troops in the field, herders for beef-cattle, when required, will be obtained by details from the cavalry force serving with the troops. At depots, herders (non-conscripts) will be hired and suitable horses or mules and equipments for them obtained by transfer from the quartermaster's department, when practicable. For this purpose the officer of the subsistence department in charge of the depot shall make requisition on the local officer of the quartermaster's department having charge of the kinds of property required, and, upon certificate of the latter that it is not practicable to furnish them, the officer of the subsistence department is authorized to purchase. The requisition so

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*Not found.

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