Numbers 2. Reports of Lieutenant General Charles W. Davis, Fifty-first Illinois Infantry, Assistant Provost-Marshal-General. SAINT LOUIS, MO., May 15, 1865.

GENERAL: In accordance with instructions from you of the 29th ultimo, I left Saint Louis in company with Captain J. F. Bennett, assistant adjutant-general, on the 30th ultimo, to proceed to North Arkansas to endeavor to find Brigadier General M. Jeff. Thompson and deliver to him your letter. We reached Cape Girardeau that night, and the next day made arrangements with Brevet Brigadier-General Beveridge for crossing the country into Arkansas. He furnished us with 200 men of the Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry as an escort, under command of Lieutenant Colonel D. J. Hynes. Leaving Cape Girardeau on the morning of the 2nd instant, we were three days in reaching Chalk Bluff, on the Saint Francis River. On the 5th instant we were engaged in building the raft on the Saint Francis River, in foraging the country, and in trying to get some definite information in regard to the whereabouts of General Thompson. It was difficult to ascertain anything positive about him, all of our informants saying that he had not been in that vicinity for a long time, and giving us as rumors that he had gone south to meet a flag of truce. We learned that he called Harrisburg his headquarters. Learning that it would be difficult to subsist my escort on the Arkansas side of the Saint Francis River, I thought best to remain at Chalk Bluff and endeavor to get General Thompson, if he could be found, to come to me. On the 5th instant I wrote a letter (inclosed, marked A, is a copy) to General Thompson by a citizen of Arkansas. Fearing that this might not reach him, on the 6th instant I wrote another (inclosed, marked B, is a copy), which Captain Bennett, accompanied by an escort of sixty men, started with. General Thompson received my first letter on the 7th instant, to which he replied as per inclosed, C. The same day Captain Bennet met with General Thompson and made arrangements to have him accompany him on his return to Chalk Bluff. Captain Bennett will give you a report of his trip, as well as other items he has gained. On the 9th instant Captain Bennett returned to Chalk Bluff, General Thompson and four of his officers coming with him. I delivered your letter to the general, and we had several long conversations with him, the result of which was the paper from him marked D, and my reply, of which inclosed, marked E, is a copy. General Thompson seemed to have great doubts about his right to surrender a district and a force that were not surrounded or in danger of immediate capture, and before doing so he wished to consult with his two brigade commanders, and upon his agreeing to remain with us I gave him forty-eight hours to communicate with them. On the 10th instant I received from General Thompson the two inclosed letters, marked K, to which I replied as per inclosed copy, marked L. The forty-eight hours given General Thompson having expired at 5 p. m. on the 11th instant, he announced his decision to surrender all his forces in the communication marked M, which I acknowledged as per inclosed copy, marked N. He then wrote the accompanying letter [marked O] to you formally surrendering all the forces under his command. We selected Wittsburg and Jacksonport as the places for receiving and paroling his officers and men, because we believed them the only avail-