HDQRS. DEPT. OF S. CAROLINA, GEORGIA, AND FLORIDA, Charleston, January 27, 1864.

Respectfully submitted and forwarded to the Adjutant and Inspector General, S. C. Army, in compliance with telegram of 25th instant, in the temporary absence of commanding general at Savannah.

JNO. M. OTEY,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

SAVANNAH, January 28, 1864.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General:

Enemy reported at Whitmarsh Island, south of this city, has left; probably reconnaissance for future operations. Preparations will be made accordingly. All quiet here and at Charleston.

G. T. BEAUREGARD.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF S. CAROLINA, GEORGIA, AND FLORIDA, Charleston, S. C., January 28, 1864.

Brigadier General W. B. TALLIAFERRO,
Commanding Seventh Military District, James Island, S. C.:

GENERAL: Your letters of the 15th ultimo was duly received, but present current matters have necessarily delayed answers to the several points, mainly personal to the officers involved, until now. It is not believed that any difficulty or question prejudicial to the interests of the officers in question can rightly arise. Your command, originally at Savannah, was scarcely a brigade, in the sense in which that word is used with an army organized for a campaign. Your command was scattered in occupation of an extended line of detached positions at Savannah, and some twenty-eight companies of which came here with you, or rather they having been ordered here in July, you were subsequently directed to assume their command, leaving behind no command that could be rightly termed a brigade, to which the officers in question can legitimately claim to belong rather than to the troops brought here, and which are now scattered by the exigencies of the service in different parts of this department.

I am directed to add, the officers in question have been can usefully be employed in connection with your command, or the general service, in their respective branches of the service.

Respectfully, general, your obedient servant,

THOMAS JORDAN,

Chief of Staff.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DISTRICT OF MIDDLE FLORIDA, No. 5.
Quincy, January 28, 1864.

I. As senior officer of the district, I hereby assume command.

W. J. MAGILL,

Colonel First Georgia Regiment.