the Perdido, with the promise that it would be ready to start the next day. I made all arrangements accordingly, but the tug is not yet at the Barrancas wharf on account of repairs required. The inclosed note just received gives me once more the assurance that the small steamer will be reported to-morrow morning; if so, I will cross the Perdido at its mouth in the evening with 1,000 men, comprising infantry, cavalry, and two pieces of artillery, and move along the beach toward Bonsecours Bay the following day.

It is now more than five months that I have been constantly applying for two small steamers of 4 to 5 feet draught, so urgently required for entering the Perdido and all the tributaries of the Pensacola Bay, the Escambia, Blackwater, Yellow Water, and Choctawhatchee Rivers. At last one was sent, the Lizzie Davis, entirely unseaworthy and unserviceable, as the inclosed report of Captain Hanna, district quartermaster, shows. I would therefore most respectfully request the commanding general's orders for the exchange of the Lizzie Davis for another small steamer answering the requirements above alluded to.

Very respectfully, major, your obedient servant,

ASBOTH,

Brigadier-General.

FLAG-STEAMER PHILADELPHIA,

Port Royal Harbor, S. C., August 13, 1864.

Major General J. G. FOSTER,

Commanding Dept. of the South, Hdqrs. Hilton Head:

GENERAL: Yours of the 8th instant, with its inclosures, was received here yesterday morning, immediately on my arrival from the south. After the occurrence compliance of at Bay Point, I caused Acting Master Gardner to be arrested as a preliminary to a trial for neglect of duty, if upon examination such should appear necessary. Since that Acting Master Gardner has addressed me a further explanation of the whole matter.

With such consideration as the pressure of business permits my giving to the papers, which you were so good as to send me, it appears to me that no order was given, or intention existed, to violate the naval jurisdiction at Bay Point, either by the provost-marshal-general or the provost-marshal at this place, nor by Colonel Littlefield. Still, it is a fact that the guard from Hilton Head did arrest a number of men at Bay Point within the naval jurisdiction; that these men were in naval employ, and had just returned from their work when they were arrested, and that they were not deserters from the army, as the sergeant of the guard was himself satisfied of before giving them up. Under these circumstances I think you will concur with me that it is eminently proper to prevent the recurrence of such proceedings, because they are prejudicial to good order, to the interests of the public service, and are likely to lead to collision, and even to bloodshed, between the subordinate officers and men of the two services. I would therefore request that you would, by general order, make known that the arrest made at Bay Point, within the naval jurisdiction, were unauthorized and were unintentional; secondly, that no officer under your command shall attempt to exercise any authority within the naval jurisdiction, or shall send parties of men within said jurisdiction to make any arrests whatever, but that of deserters