HDQRS. ARMY AND DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI,
Fort Gaines, Ala., March 8, 1865.

Major General S. A. HURLBUT,

Commanding Department of the Gulf, New Orleans, La.:

GENERAL: I am instructed by the major-general commanding to request that you will be pleased to order Brigadier General J. Bailey by telegraph to report to these headquarters by the earliest opportunity. I am further directed to say that you are authorized, in case you deem it necessary, to replace General Bailey by another general officer; to retain either Brigadier General E. A. Carr or Brevet Brigadier-General Littlejohn, now daily expected at New Orleans. Be pleased to inform Captain Dyer accordingly.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., March 9, 1865.

Lieutenant-General GRANT,

City Point, Va.:

General Canby asks that construction corps, 800 experienced workmen, with material and stock to rebuild seventy miles of railroad from Pensacola to Pollard and from Pensacola to Barrancas, may be sent from the North. The iron alone would cost, in New York, $875,000. The other material and labor would carry the cost to $2,000,000, subject to some deductions for rolling-stock which General Canby hopes to get from the Mobile and Ohio road. We are embarrassed to provide transportation to North Carolina for railroad stock and material to prepare to meet General Sherman, and the fitting out of an expedition to establish a new railroad construction center at Pensacola would be a serious tax upon the resources of the commercial marine and upon the Quartermaster's Department. If we begin this railroad construction at Pensacola it will inevitably extend and result in the expenditure upon railroads in that region of several millions. Consulting General Halleck, he advises me to telegraph to you and ask your views upon the subject. Whatever is approved will be attempted and executed if possible, but I have doubts as to the necessity or expediency of commencing this great expenditure. The Alabama River is generally navigable and the Mississippi can furnish all needed steam-boats. The southwestern rivers are reported in good navigable condition.

M. C. MEIGS,

Quartermaster-General, Brevet Major-General.

CITY POINT, VA., March 9, 1865-11.30 p.m.

Major-General MEIGS,

Quartermaster-General, Washington, D. C.:

You need not send an article of railroad material or a man to Canby. We have no time for building railroads there now.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.