CAIRO, October 1, 1862-10 a. m.

Major General SAMUEL R. CURTIS,

Saint Louis, Mo.:

SIR: Reliable and late information from White River that but a small force on borders of Missouri-McBride, 2,200 (only 1,500 effective); large force at Brownsville, Austin, Little Rock, and vicinity--25,000 to 30,000, with about fifty pieces of artillery. Regiment recently arrived from Texas. Arsenal at Arkadelphia, 60 miles southwesterly from Little Rock--make guns, gunpowder, percussion caps, and a force there.

If force your ordered to leave with General Steele shall be withdrawn, force at Helena inadequate to move either into Mississippi or Arkansas and hold Helena. Present more favorable time to move and obtain supplies in the country than at a later period.

Retrograde move will be disastrous, I fear. Orders to move had been given before Steele received your orders. Boats not now sufficient at Helena to move force ordered. Hope you will countermand your order and send Steele after the enemy in Arkansas.

Am sick. Came here to ask order be countermanded and await your reply. Your orders takes more than half effective infantry, and more than half the field pieces, mountain howitzers excepted.

JNO. S. PHELPS.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE MISSOURI, Numbers 5.
Saint Louis, Mo., October 1, 1862.

I. To prevent the transmission of supplies, and especially articles contraband of war, into the enemy's lines, no public trade or commercial business shall be carried on within the department except by persons strictly loyal. No license shall be given to disloyal persons, and any license or authority to such person which has been or may be given by any officer, civil or military, within this command is rescinded and void.

II. The following extracts from regulations concerning commercial intercourse with the insurrectionary States, prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and the enforcement thereof ordered in General Orders, Numbers 119, War Department, current series, are published for the information of all concerned in his department:

I. No goods, wares, or merchandise, whatever may be the ostensible destination thereof, shall be transported to any place now under the control of insurgents, * * * nor to any on the west side of the Mississippi River below the mouth of the Des Moines, except Saint Louis, within a permit of a duly authorized officer of the Treasury Department. And the special agents of this Department may temporarily extend these restrictions to such other places in their respective districts and make such local rules to be observed therein as may from time to time become necessary, promptly reporting their action to the Secretary of the Treasury for his section or disapproval.

II. All transportation of coin or bullion to any State or section heretofore declared to be in insurrection is absolutely prohibited, except for military purposes and under military order or under the special license of the Secretary of the Treasury. And no payment of gold or silver shall be made for cotton or other merchandise within any such State or section. And all cotton or other merchandise purchased or paid for therein, directly or indirectly, in gold or silver, shall be forfeited to the Untied States.

* * * *

IV. All applications for permits to transport or trade under these regulations shall state the character and value of the merchandise to be transported, the consignee and destination thereof, with the route of transportation and the number and description of the packages, with the marks thereon.

V. Every applicant for such permits shall present with his application the original invoices of the goods, wares, and merchandise to be transported, and shall make and