thanksgiving for the past, and prayer for the future; and that all will unite with him in the earnest petition that Gold in His mercy will deal tenderly with the relatives and friends of our dead and wounded comrades.

By order of Major General E. R. S. Canby:

C. H. DYER,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

NEAR MOBILE, April 23, 1865.

Major General E. R. S. CANBY,

Commanding Army and Division of West Mississippi, Mobile, Ala.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to inform you that I am the bearer of a communication* from Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, commanding the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, which General Taylor is desirous if possible that I should deliver to you in person, together, with a verbal explanation of his views, with which he has intrusted me, on the subject of that communication. In response to the views expressed by yourself to me in our last interview, General Taylor express a desire and will be willing to enter into measures tending to allay any unnecessary sacrifice of life, and particularly any further and useless destruction of property, entailing sufferings which may be avoided upon helpless women and children.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. R. CURELL,

Major and Assistant Commissioner of Exchange.

HEADQUARTERS THIRD DIVISION,
April 23, 1865.

Major General GORDON GRANGER,

Commanding Thirteenth Army Corps:

GENERAL: I reached the mouth of the Alabama River in the U. S. steamer Sebago, on the evening of the 22nd instant, and came to these headquarters at Nanna Hubba Bluff in a row-boat this morning. General Benton had not received his orders. They came in the Tamaulipas just as I landed. He is now below the cut-off. Yesterday he sent out cavalry to find a crossing to McIntosh Bluff. They crossed Pole Bayou on a bridge at the level of the water. They passed Bates' Creek partly by swimming and partly by a flat-boat ferry about a mile below dotted (Saint Stephen's) road on skeleton map. The width, which could not be forded, was about fifty yards. They could not cross Bilbo's Creek and report that they would have had to swim a quarter of a mile. The water is very high and up in the branches of the trees, so that the flat-boat could not be towed up Bates' Creek to the road. A guide states that he can show a road from here to McIntosh Bluff, good for cavalry and infantry now, and that only needs a bridge forty feet long for wagons and artillery, and only four miles longer that Saint Stephen's main road. I am just sending Captain Cannon with cavalry to look at this. If not so, I shall try to bridge Bates' and Bilbo's Creek, which will take two or three days. I expect to examine McIntosh Bluff this afternoon, if Captain Low, U. S. Navy, can send me up there; if not, to-morrow morning. Present reports and appearances

* See April 22, p.440.