HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., August 20, 1864.

Captain GEORGE R. HURLBUT,

Commanding Batt. Fourth Mass. Cav., Hilton Head, S. C.:

CAPTAIN: The major-general commanding directs that you use every facilities in your power to arrange matters so that your battalion can move at the earliest possible notice. You will take all your horses, arms, and equipments and camp and garrison equipage with you. The major-general commanding further directs that you leave behind at this post 1 commissioned officer and 25 enlisted men with the necessary non-commissioned officers for the same. On arriving at Jacksonville, you will immediately report to Brigadier General J. P. Hatch, in person.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

THOMAS J. ROBINSON,

First Lieutenant, Twenty-first U. S. Colored Troops, A. A. A. G.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WEST FLORIDA,
Barrancas, August 20, 1864.

Major C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Asst. Adjt. General, Hdqrs. Div. of West Mississippi:

MAJOR: I have the honor to submit, in connection with my report of August 12, Numbers 846, the following additional information received from refuges and deserters:

There is a force of from 8,000 to 9,000 men at Mobile, mostly conscripts, boys and old men, enlisted men armed as infantry, but ordered for duty on the fortifications around the city s heavy artillery. They are constructing new obstructions in Mobile Bay, starting at the lower part of the city above Choctaw Point and bringing them in half circle up to the mouth of the Tensaw River, placing new batteries behind them in the marshy ground. They have also two new batteries above the forking of the Apalache and Blakely Rivers, one battery with seven guns and the other with five; one 32-pounder rifled gun in each. It takes one hour to run with steam from the new batteries to the Treasury Railroad Station, where 350 of a Mississippi infantry regiment and 100 militia are stationed, colonel Withers commanding. Along the railroad to Pollard every trestle work is well guarded. General Maury is in command at Pollard, with 3,000 troops and eight pieces of artillery at his disposal. His advanced guard, 400 to 500 strong, all cavalry, is encamped this side Silver Spring with commissary stores at Widow Lawson's place and at Pine Barren Bridge.

The rebel camps this side Fort Morgan are deserted, all the cavalry having been ordered from Camp Withers and Powell, partly to Perdido Mill, west side of the river, and partly to Pine Barren Bridge, this side of the Perdido. At Milton there is one company of cavalry scouting down to the Blackwater River. Torpedoes are placed in the Escambia from Cotton Ferry upward and in the Blackwater River below and above Milton. The torpedoes were made at Mobile.

General Page, in command at Fort Morgan, reported to General Dabney H. Maury that he would hold the fort to the last man, and that it was not with his consent that Fort Powell was evacuated and