When the three 8-inch shell guns and another 8-inch siege mortar shall have arrived, no more guns will be required, except as above referred to, and these, perhaps, can be procured at Saint Augustine, as indicated.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

T. SEYMOUR,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

WASHINGTON, March 16, 1864-12.30 p. m.

Lieutenant-General GRANT,

Nashville, Tenn.:

The furloughs of veteran regiments from the Department of the South (Hilton Head) are about to expire. It is proposed to bring any troops North from that department for the coming campaign, should not these regiments be retain, in order to avoid double transportation?

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General and Chief of Staff.

NASHVILLE, TENN., March 16, 1864-7 p. m.

(Received 10. 40 p. m.)

Major-General HALLECK,

Chief of Staff:

To avoid double transportation I desire the veteran regiments from the Department of the South rendezvoused at some point from whence they can be moved with facility, either to the Army of the Potomac or to Hilton Head, as may be required.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

WASHINGTON, D. C., March 16, 1864.

Major General Q. A. GILLMORE,

Department of the South:

GENERAL: Your dispatches of the 10th, transmitting your statement of the Olustee affair in Florida, * is just received. The statement will be immediately copied and submitted to the Secretary of War, to accompany the papers called for by the Committee on the Conduct of the War.

Until Lieutenant-General Grant returns from the West I presume no additional instructions will be given by the War Department in regard to military operations in your department.

In regard to your suggestion that General Turner, of your staff bearer of dispatches, will enter more fully into the merits of your plans, I beg leave to remark that the War Department disapproves the sending of staff officers to Washington to discuss or explain plans of generals in the field. In the first place, verbal explanations by subordinates are liable to be misunderstood, and subsequently to give rise to questions of fact and conflict of memories. A verbal

* See part I, p. 276.