FLAG-SHIP MONONGAHELA, June 12, 1863.

General N. P. BANKS, Commanding Department of the Gulf:

DEAR GENERAL: Your note of 8 a. m. to-day is received by Captain Baker, respecting the battery on the point opposite Port Hudson. I assure you, general, that no gun on the river front fires at the army; the 10-inch gun has done so once or twice at night, perhaps, without our seeing it, but my orders are to open on it the moment it fires a shot, and we silence it in five minutes. We lie in easy range of our Parrott guns and mortars, but we can see nothing of the guns to which you allude that annoy you in the rear; if we could, I would open immediately, but we can see nothing in that direction. We can send for the guns at New Orleans, and, if you wish, plant them and fire them, but if you think we can fire toward the rear, it is entirely different from all they have been saying to us. Your shells fall in the river, and it is certain that ours will go farther than your. I fear it will be wrong, but I am ready for anything.

Yours, truly,

D. G. FARRAGUT.

HDQRS. SECOND DIVISION, Before Port Hudson, June 12, 1863.

Lieutenant-Colonel IRWIN, Assistant Adjutant-General:

COLONEL: I have the honor to forward 4 more deserters to headquarters department.

I have derived from Corpl. August Meterne, Company H, Miles' Legion, a very intelligent man, the following information: He heard Lieutenant-Colonel Brand, of his legion, say that there were about 4,000 men in Port Hudson, composed about as follows: Miles' Legion, 250; Ninth Battalion [Louisiana Partisan Rangers], 150; two Tennessee regiments, consolidated, 800; First Alabama, 500; Forty-seventh [Forty-ninth] Alabama, 500; First and Fifty-ninth [Thirty-ninth] Mississippi, 500; Tenth and Fifteenth Arkansas, say 500; infantry, 3,200.

Twelfth Louisiana Battalion Artillery, on the river; Mohawk Battery, also called Red Shot; Boone's artillery, six 6-pounders; Seven Stars Battery, four 6-pounders; Cornay's -, five 24-pounder, and two or three more batteries on our right; in all about 800; total, 4,000.

Caps are scarce; ammunition, as far as he knows, abundant.

Captain [R. M.] Boone, of Boone's battery, was killed yesterday by a shot from our battery on the left. There is no more meal. Corn was issued this morning. There is about five days' beef; plenty of peas, plenty of corn. The Mississippi regiment drove about 50 head of cattle out of the works about a week ago. The troops generally wish to surrender, and despair of relief.

WILLIAM DWIGHT,
Brigadier-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. UNITED STATES FORCES,

Fausse Point, opposite Port Hudson, La., June 12, 1863.

Lieutenant-Colonel IRWIN, Assistant Adjutant-General:

DEAR SIR: I have the honor to report that under [Special] Orders, Numbers 131,* from your headquarters, I assumed command of the forces at

---------------

*Of June 4. See p. 538.

---------------