WASHINGTON, July 7, 1863.

Brigadier General W. H. EMORY,

New Orleans:

Your dispatch of June 30 is this moment received.

General Grant has been urged to send all possible assistance to General Banks. General Gillmore, commanding Department of the South, was ordered, on the 5th instant,* to send all his available forces to New Orleans. All drafted men in the Eastern States have been ordered to New Orleans as fast as they can be collected. The law of the draft is so complicated and defective, and the machinery of enrollment so cumbersome, that it works slowly.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE GULF, NINETEENTH ARMY CORPS, Before Port Hudson, July 7, 1863.

Brigadier General W. H. EMORY,
Commanding Defenses of New Orleans:

SIR: I am directed by the commanding general to inclose to you the copy of a dispatch from Major-General Grant, announcing the surrender of Vicksburg on the morning of the 4th instant.+ The operations here will be pushed as rapidly as possible. Donaldsonville can be strengthened somewhat by the army and navy.

The commanding general appreciates the power of the enemy to annoy us on the river and in the country west of the river, but does not apprehend immediately danger to the city of New Orleans. He desires me to say that it cannot be many days before this command is relieved from its duty here.

Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

RICH'D B. IRWIN,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE GULF, NINETEENTH ARMY CORPS, Before Port Hudson, July 7, 1863-11 a. m.

Major General U. S. GRANT,
Commanding at Vicksburg:

MY DEAR GENERAL: Your most gratifying dispatch [4th instant] has just been received, announcing the surrender of Vicksburg. I beg you to accept my hearty congratulations. It is the most important event of the war, and will contribute most to the re-establishment of the Government.

The freedom of the Mississippi puts an end to the rebellion, so far as an independent Confederacy is concerned. There is no room for an independent government between the Mississippi and the Atlantic.

Port Hudson will be in our possession before the close of this week. The Army of the Gulf sends its congratulations to the gallant and successful troops of your command. Salutes will be fired at noon from the

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*See Series I, Vol. XXVIII.

+See Series I, Vol. XXIV, Part III, p. 470.

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