PLAQUEMINE, February 4, 1865.

(Received 4 p. m.)

Captain F. SPEED,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

Your dispatch received. As you will see by my last report, the party of the enemy actually engaged is estimated by Captain Rice at 150. The following is an extract of a communication sent this morning by me to him:

As soon as joined by Lieutenant Lewis' company you will endeavor to find out whether they have crossed to the other side of Grand River. If not, harass them while doing so, and if possible increase your list of prisoners.

R. G. SHAW,

Major, Commanding Post.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI,
New Orleans, La., February 4, 1865.

Major General J. J. REYNOLDS,

Commanding Department of Arkansas, Little Rock, Ark.:

SIR: The major-general commanding directs that the Twenty-third Wisconsin Volunteers, belonging to the Reserve Corps, be relieved from duty at Helena, Ark., and sent to this city as soon as transportation can be furnished. The Ninety-sixth Ohio, according to last returns received at the mouth of White River, and the Thirty-fifth Wisconsin, at Devall's Bluff, both belonging to the Reserve Corps, should also be relieved and sent down as soon as possible.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

VAN BUREN, ARK., February 4, 1865.

His Excellency Governor MURPHY:

SIR: Permit the undersigned committee of the loyal citizens of Crawford County, farmers and mechanics, and acting in their behalf and by their authority, to state to Your Excellency the deplorable condition of the country by reason of the persecutions, robbing, and plundering generally committed by the officers, soldiers, and their associates and camp followers now and for the twelve months last past. We have been robbed and personally maltreated to an extent unparalleled; at any rate not exceeded in all Christian history. They have taken from us everything of value, and we have no redress for these and other and multiplied wrongs. These men are protected and encouraged in committing robbery and other outrages by certain officers holding administrative power here and at Fort Smith. They knock down and maim our citizens in the streets of the town of Van Buren, and commit other indignities. It is impossible to obtain redress. It is impossible to keep a horse, a cow, an ox, a piece of meat, or a bushel of meal, unless so far hidden as to defy their search, and we are debarred from entering complaint against them for any of the above-named offenses, for they threaten our lives for so doing. The present assistant provost-marshal here is one of their own creatures, as most other of his predecessors have been, and it is, indeed, of no use to complain. It is of no use for us to complain to the authorities at Fort