to dispatch to Colonel Fitch to take no risks in reaching General Curtis. It is impossible to re-enforce him from here sufficiently to insure the success of the expedition.

U. S. GRANT,

Major-General.

MEMPHIS, July 6, 1862.

Major General H. W. HALLECK, Corinth, Miss.:

A messenger is just from Colonel Fitch. He reached Clarendon with 9 casualties from guerrilla firing (three fatal), when the gunboat declined proceeding farther. This is below Ball's [Devall's?] Bluff, the point of greatest danger. Colonel Fitch has dispatched two messengers to General Curtis, informing him of his position. I will instruct him to remain where he now is (he has dropped back to Saint Charles) a reasonable time to hear from General Curtis, and if the latter is not making his way to Fitch, to return here.

In the mean time I have two separate messengers on their way to General Curtis. Colonel Fitch says that it will be impossible to reach Jacksonport without cavalry and artillery and a very considerable increased infantry force from what he now has.

I have neither the infantry nor cavalry; the artillery might be spared. I will forward by mail Colonel Fitch's dispatches.

U. S. GRANT,

Major-General.

JUNE 11, 1862.-Skirmish near Cassville, Mo.

Report of Brigadier General Egbert B. Brown, Missouri State Militia.

HEADQUARTERS SOUTHWESTERN DIVISION,
Springfield, Mo., June 12, 1862.

GENERAL: Two wagons of the Thirty-seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteers with 5 men were fired upon from the brush about 7 miles from Cassville yesterday, killing 1 man, wounding 2, and 1 taken prisoner. Four horses lost.

I have made a stringent order against sending wagons or trains without proper escort. Six squadrons of cavalry left Cassville this morning to break up a camp of about 400 near Berryville, Ark. The First Battalion Colonel Hall's Twenty-fourth Regiment Missouri state Militia arrived at Greenfield on the 10th. I have ordered Colonel Hall to take command of the troops in Vernon, Barton, Cedar, and Dade Counties, with his headquarters at Greenfield. The Tenth Illinois has ben ordered to Mount Vernon, and the command of Lawrence and Jasper Counties given to Lieutenant-Colonel Wickersham, of that regiment, with headquarters at Mount Vernon. Colonel Julius White, Thirty-seventh Illinois, has command of the troops at Cassville, and the counties of Newton, Mcdonald, Stone, and Barry, with his headquarters at Cassville. I have ordered six squadrons of the Second Wisconsin to Cassville. Colonel King has not reported yet. He must move very slowly.

I am, truly, your obedient servant,

E. B. BROWN,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

Brigadier General JOHN M. SCHOFIELD,

Commanding District of Missouri, Saint Louis.