cavalry, McGuirk's regiment (Mississippi) cavalry, Moorman's battalion (Mississippi) cavalry, Twenty-third Battalion Mississippi Cavalry, Butler's company (Mississippi) cavalry, Ashby's company (Mississippi) cavalry, Withers' company (Mississippi) cavalry.

VI. The following regiments, battalions, and companies will report to Brigadier General P. B. Starke, commanding brigade cavalry, for duty: Eighth Confederate Regiment Cavalry, Eighth Mississippi Regiment Cavalry Seventh Regiment Mississippi Cavalry, Twenty-eighth Regiment Mississippi Cavalry, Eighteenth Mississippi Battalion Cavalry, Companies C, D, E, H, and K, Fifth Mississippi Cavalry.

By order of Brigadier-General Chalmers:

W. A. GOODMAN,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

COLUMBUS, MISS., February 18, 1865

Brigadier General F. C. ARMSTRONG,

West Point, Miss.:

Order Twenty-eighth Mississippi Regiment with everything belonging to it to report here.

J. R. CHALMERS,

Brigadier-General

WEST POINT, February 19, 1865

Brigadier General J. R. CHALMERS:

Spare no time, hasten to reorganize, and fit up your command. We have no time to lose.

N. B. FORREST,

Major-General.

HDQRS. CAVALRY, DEPT., OF ALA., MISS., AND EAST LA.,
West Point, Miss., February 19, 1865.

Brigadier-General CHALMERS,

Commanding Division;

GENERAL: I am directed by the major-general commanding to acknowledge the receipt of copies of General Orders, 1 and 2, from your headquarters, and to say, that in the assumption of the command of all the Mississippi cavalry in this department, you should have excepted the reserve cavalry, which, although in the C. S. service, was not intended to be turned over to you, and that the assignment, therefore, of the companies of Captains Ashby, Butler, and Withers, was incorrect. He also desires me to say that in the consolidation of commands no authority is given by the new military bill to separate regiments or other integral commands, but merely to consolidate into companies, battalions, and regiments; and that consequently the assignment of a portion of the Fifth and Seventh Mississippi Regiments to one command, and the other portions to a different one, was not legal. Companies, however, which may be in organization other than those from their own States, have a right, he thinks too be united with regiments from their proper States. Consequently, should there be any such in Wade's, or any of your other regiments, who desire, it, you will turn them over to Brigadier-General Buford or Jackson. In making these consolidations, you will be much assisted by bearing in mind the fact, the mini-