SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. THIRD DIV., 19TH ARMY CORPS, Numbers 53.
Camp at Algiers, September 16, 1863.

I. The Second Brigade, as directed last night, and the First Vermont Battery, will move at once to Brashear City by the Opelousas Railroad. The train is now ready to receive them.

II. The First Brigade and Battery F, First Artillery, will move to-morrow at 7 a. m. over the same road and to the same place.

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By command of Brigadier-General Emory:

[D. S. WALKER,]

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, Numbers 69.
New Orleans, September 16, 1863.

During the temporary absence of Brigadier General James Bowen, the powers of provost-marshal-general of the department will be exercised by Colonel E. G. Beckwith, commanding Defenses of New Orleans.

By command of Major-General Banks:

G. NORMAN LIEBER,
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, Numbers 231.
New Orleans, September 16, 1863.

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XVIII. The first twenty regiments of infantry of the Corps d'Afrique will be at once organized by the commander of the corps into two divisions, of two each.*

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By command of Major-General Banks:

G. NORMAN LIEBER,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE GULF, NINETEENTH ARMY CORPS,
New Orleans, September 17, 1863.

Captain ROBERT T. DUNHAM,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

CAPTAIN: You will please proceed to perform the following duty:

You will take the first steamer bound up the Mississippi River, and communicate as soon as practicable with Rear-Admiral Porter, U. s. Navy, commanding Mississippi Squadron, and with Major General U. S. Grant, commanding the Department of the Tennessee.

To the former, you will represent the solicitude which I experience in view of the partially defenseless condition of the Lower Mississippi, which has not an iron-clad boat between New Orleans and the sea, nor a light-draught gunboat, either iron-clad or tin-clad, to patrol or to cooperate with the land forces in any expedition which the army may be required to set on foot.

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*See organization of the Corps d'Afrique, under date of September 22, p. 733.

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