their instructions through Lieutenant Daly, and that on the road through Lieutenant Moran. These senior officers of the parties will be herd responsible for the conduct of the officers and men in their [charge], and will promptly report in writing to these headquarters any neglect or incompetency on the part of the officers under them, it order that the cases may be investigated. In making the details at regimental headquarters a captain will be selected for each party with reference to his efficiency. The other officers will be lieutenants. These captains will remain on duty for the whole day, and designate the moment at which the details may leave off work, observing the provisions of General Orders, Numbers 9, from these headquarters, 18th instant.

By order of Brigadier General Alex. Shaler:

CHAS. E. HOWE,

Captain, Twelfth Michigan Infantry, and Actg. Asst. Adjt. General

HDQRS. CAVALRY DEPOT, DEPARTMENT OF ARKANSAS,
Devall's Bluff, Ark., January 20, 1865.

Brigadier General J. R. WEST,

Commanding Cav. Div., Seventh Army Corps, Little Rock, Ark.:

GENERAL: Your orders concerning the Second Missouri Cavalry have been received through General Shaler. Details have been ordered to report to their command, and the commanding officer ordered to have the regiment with arms, accountermets, &c., ready for the move immediately.

L. GREGG,

Colonel, Commanding Depot.

MEMPHIS, TENN., January 20, 1865.

Colonel E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

Information was received here on the 16th instant by General M. L. Smith, commanding, which he deemed reliable, that on the 13th part of the troops of the rebel Generals Lee and Howard [Hardee or Hood?] were at Oxford, Tenn., where re-enforcements were constantly arriving by rail from Grenada. Troops were moving out of Oxford toward Holly Springs, where the informant saw three regiments of rebel cavalry. Troops were also leaving Holly Springs on two roads leading toward this place. Twenty-one pieces of artillery were at Holly Springs with the rebel troops. A part of Forrest's force had moved from Corinth to Moscow. On the 13th Forrest was at Jacinto, and was said to have an interview with Dick Taylor at Grenada on the 14th. Information goes to show that the rebel Generals Archer, Dick Taylor, Chalmers, and Lowry were absent with the troops mentioned. General Smith had probably received a dispatch from General Washburn dated on the 13th, twenty miles below Eastport, on the Tennessee River, directing him to look for an attack, in force, from Forrest, and at one time, on the 14th and 15th, everything indicated a large concentration of rebel forces at this point. General Smith had made the best disposition of his forces to meet the attack, and with the re-enforcements he received from the mouth of White River he had no fears of the result. With the exception of attack upon one of the scouting parties this morning no demonstrations have as yet been made upon this place, and from all

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