committee an audience at your earliest convenience, stating time and place of meeting. General, allow the committee, in behalf of the Loyal League of Louisville, to tender to you their heartfelt gratification upon your return to command in Military Department of Kentucky, and to assure you that we highly approve and most heartily appreciate your past services, and to express the hope that your future may, as your former has, reflect lasting credit to our arms and will ultimately redound to the glory of the great cause for which you are laboring. May your future be crowned with all the success due to your noble efforts.

General, allow us to subscribe ourselves, respectfully, your obedient servants,

H. T. MARTIN,

President of Union League.

SAM'L MATLACK,

E. COOK,

W. M. ELROD,

Committee.

P. S.-Please answer and address Sam'l Matlack, J. P., J. C., Numbers 3 Court Place, Louisville, Ky.

OFFICE OF THE ENGINEER IN CHARGE, Barrancas, Fla., February 4, 1865.

Captain M. D. McALESTER,

Chief Engineer, Military Division of West Mississippi:

SIR: Sergeant Hollinger, Company E, First Florida Cavalry, returned this evening from the Alabama River. I think his statement can be relied on. He is a native of Alabama, is very intelligent, and quite sharp. The point marked on the map* as Choctaw Bluff he says is called Nanie Hubbard's Bluff, and Choctaw Bluff is about five miles above on the east side (marked in red), near where the road from Mount Pleasant crosses. The bluffs at both points are very much alike, being about thirty feet above the mean level of the water and quite steep. The banks of the river, except where there are bluffs, are low and marshy. The river is about 160 yards wide, and is now about twenty-two feet deep;at low water about the feet. Could get actual measurements. The bottom is entirely mud. The roads from Pollard and Blakely are ridge roads nd are in the best condition. No bridges on either have been destroyed. The river or Mobile road is low and marshy, and the present high water makes it very bad. The bridge over Little River (marked) is destroyed and has been replaced by a very frail construction which would not even cross infantry. The bluffs twelve miles above Fort Montgomery are very low, not over sixteen feet, and the whole country for three-quarters of a mile back of them is now overflowed. No points on the river below Upper Peach Tree Bluff are now occupied except Mount Pleasant, by 150 men, and Fort Claiborne, by 250, all militia of the last draft. About two weeks ago a force of negroes guarded by troops landed at Choctaw Bluff, but after staying five days without doing anything, all went up the river to a point called Upper Peach Tree, where there is a bluff on both sides of the river of at least thirty-five feet high, where they are reported to be fortifying. Several guns were landed at Choctaw Bluff, but all have been taken away. A Confederate officer told Sergeant Hollinger that

---------------

*Not found.

---------------