HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF FLORIDA,
Camp Milton, near Jacksonville, March 8, 1864.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector-General, Richmond:

GENERAL: I have the honor to report that the Florida volunteers in this district are at present organized into four battalions and three unattached companies, and to request that, as far as practicable, they may be organized into regiments. An application has some time since been forwarded to the War Department for the organization of a regiment by amalgamating the Sixth Florida Battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Martin, seven companies, with the three independent companies of Captains Eichelberger, McNeill, and Reynolds, making ten companies, to which I would respectfully call your attention. There would then remain the following battalions: First Florida Battalion Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel Hopkins, six companies; Second Florida Battalion Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel Brevard, six companies; Fourth Florida Battalion Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel McClellan, five companies.

A more efficient organization would exist if these battalions were combined into two regiments, which can readily be effected by making companies from the men who might be transferred from the stronger companies, and I have the honor to request that I be authorized to do this, the details to be subject to the approval of the commanding general of the department and of the War Department.

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

PATTON ANDERSON,

Major-General, Commanding.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. MILITARY DISTRICT OF FLORIDA, Numbers 2.
Camp Milton, March 8, 1864.

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V. Colonel R. H. Anderson, commanding cavalry force in the front, will cause Captain J. J. Dickison's company (H), Second Cavalry, to move immediately to Palatka, on the Saint John's River, and take position as formerly. Further instructions will be sent him hereafter. He will report to Lieutenant-Colonel Harris, Fourth Georgia Cavalry, at Waldo, and call upon him for any support needed.

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By command of Major-General Anderson:

WM. G. BARTH,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY, ARMY OF FLORIDA,

March 8, 1864.

Captain W. CALL,

A. A. A. G., Mil. Dist. of Florida, Camp Milton:

CAPTAIN: I have the honor very respectfully to acknowledge the receipt of the order requiring Captain Dickison to move with his troops to Palatka, and to make the following statement to the major-general commanding:

Captain Dickison's troops was attached to Major Scott's battalion for special service, and is now doing important outpost duty. If