My dispatches to you will show that no movement on Mobile is at present contemplated, nor can any iron-clads be now detached from Charleston or other points for the defense of New Orleans.

Mexican and French complications render it exceedingly important that the movement ordered against Texas be undertaken without delay.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. NINETEENTH ARMY CORPS, Numbers 1.
Baton, Rouge, La., August 20, 1863.

In pursuance of Special Orders, Numbers 200, Extract 24, Headquarters Department of the Gulf, the undersigned hereby assumes command of the Nineteenth Army Corps.

His staff is announced as follows: Captain Wickham Hoffman, assistant adjutant-general; Lieutenant Colonel J. G. Chandler, assistant quartermaster; Captain William Scheffler, adjutant, aide-de-camp, and commissary of musters; Captain George S. Shaw, adjutant, and aide-de-camp; Captain John P. Baker, First U. S. Cavalry, aide-de-camp; Lieutenant David Lyon, Seventy-seventh New York Volunteers, aide-de-camp; Captain George M. Franklin, One hundred and twenty-second Pennsylvania Volunteers, aide-de-camp; Surg. John H. Rauch, U. S. Volunteers, medical director.

They will be obeyed and respected accordingly.

Other staff officers will be announced as appointed.

W. B. FRANKLIN,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS POST,
Natchez, August 22, 1863.

Major General E. O. C. ORD,

Commanding Thirteenth Army Corps, New Orleans:

GENERAL: I have information this a. m. from Alexandria; the parties are reliable, and report General Walker's division, 8,000 to 10,000 strong, passed through Alexandria last week. They several days in getting through Alexandria, and reported to be en route for Berwick Bay.

Kirby Smith was said to have passed through, for same place, some ten days before. Walker's force was nearly all infantry, very little artillery, and no cavalry. Only two companies of cavalry garrisoning Alexandria at present.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

T. E. G. RANSOM,

Brigadier-General of Volunteers.

U. S. S. DE SOTO,

Gulf of Mexico, August 22, 1863.

Commanding Officer, U. S. Naval Forces, off New Orleans:

SIR: Within the last few days we have captured a steamer from Havana, bound to Mobile, with a cargo of salted beef and pork for the Confederate Government.

The fact that steamers, at great cost, with all the attendant risk, are