HDQRS. ARMY AND DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF ARTILLERY AND ORDNANCE,
Mobile, Ala., April 16, 1865.

Colonel BERTRAM,

Commanding Forces at Spanish Fort:

COLONEL: The major-general commanding the Military Division and Army of West Mississippi directs that Forts Huger and Tracy be at once dismantled and all the ordnance and ordnance stores at said point be immediately prepared for shipment. He directs that you give instructions to the officers commanding at Forts Huger and Tracy to dismount the guns and move them, with their carriages, implements, and equipments, to the wharves, and place them conveniently for rapid shipment when transportation arrives. Should the garrisons at Forts Huger and Tracy require any additional details or other assistance in the way of timber for skids, gins for dismounting the guns, &c., for the rapid execution of the above-mentioned work, the major-general commanding direct that you furnish whatever is necessary, and that you report to the undersigned as soon as possible when transportation should be sent for the ordnance and ordnance stores.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. TOTTEN,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Artillery and Ordnance.

CIRCULAR.] HEADQUARTERS SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS,

In the Field, Ala., April 16, 1865.

The major-general commanding directs that the troops of this corps will take up the line of march to-morrow, 17th in the following order: First, Second Division at 6 a. m.; fourth, supply trains at 8 a. m., guarded by the First Division. The division commanders will send all supply trains (subsistence and ammunition) to the rear, to be guarded each day by the rear division in line of march. The division which is to guard the general supply train will thrown one brigade in the rear of the train as rear guard and one on each flank of the train.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. HOUGH,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. ARMY AND DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI,
Mobile, Ala., April 16, 1865.

Major General F. STEELE,

Commanding Force seat of Mobile Bay, Blakely, Ala.:

GENERAL: The major-general commanding directs that you prepare your command for immediate embarkation on river transports. As it is doubtful whether the First Brigade, Second Division, Thirteenth Army Corps (Colonel Bertram), can be spared or relieved by other troops, the necessary preparations will only be made for General Hawkins' division and the Second and Third Brigades of General C. C. Andrews' division, with the artillery apportioned and now with these commands. The object of your expedition is to ascend the Alabama River as far as Selma and Montgomery, with a view to co-operate with and support the column of Major General A. J. Smith, commanding Sixteenth Army Corps, and to sweep from that river and its banks all impediments to navigation and opposition which the enemy may make. Furthermore, to escort such quartermaster's, commissary, and ordnance