GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSIPPI, Numbers 21.
Memphis, Tenn., February 16, 1865.

To carry out the objects and intentions of General Orders, Numbers 13, current series, from headquarters Military Division of West Mississippi, the following regulations will be observed and obeyed in this department:

I. All plantations, colonies, or other industrial establishments leased, registered, or permitted under the regulations of February 1, 1865, will after being acted on by the commander of the district in which they are located be reported to these headquarters for approval, and will not be recognized as valid until the department commander shall indorse his approval thereon.

II. The limits of actual military occupation, as at present defined in the several districts of this command, are extended so as to include localities approved as above.

III. Owners or lessees of plantations under the authority of the above-mentioned regulations will immediately after receiving the above mentioned approval, without delay, construct stockades or such other temporary defense as may be necessary to secure their laborers, stock, and other property from the danger of being carried off or destroyed by small raiding parties of the enemy; and any lessee who shall disregard or neglect this regulation will suffer the withdrawal of the approval from his lease and the forfeiture of his privileges, besides such further penalty as the case may render proper.

IV. Until the supervising special agent of the Treasury Department shall have made his arrangements to receive the freedmen and assume their care and support under the law of July 2, 1865, the freedmen's department will remain as at present. Proper orders will be given for the transfer as soon as he is ready to receive them without embarrassment to his department.

By order of Major General N. J. T. Dana:

F. W. FOX,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS INDIAN BRIGADE,
Fort Gibson, C. N., February 16, 1865.

Major-General CANBY,

Commanding Mil. Div. of West Mississippi, New Orleans, La.:

SIR: I desire to notify you of encroachments on the rights of the people of the Indian Nation from the Department of Kansas by citizens thereof and volunteer officers and soldiers stationed there. I desire that you communicate with the major-general commanding the Division of Missouri, to secure his assistance in putting a stop to evils that have assumed fearful proportions, and for the protection of interests so justly entitled to it. I desire to state that for nearly a year past there has been a systematic and wholesale plundering and driving of stock from the Indian Nation to Kansas. Part of this is the property of loyal soldiers in our service, part of loyal citizens, and part of disloyal persons now in arms against us or aiding those who are. The devastations of War have depopulated the Creek Nation; two-thirds of the homes in the Cherokee Nation are abandoned. The rebel or disloyal Indians are clustered in colonies on the steams tributary to the Red River. The loyal Indians, who adhere to our cause, are clustered around Gibson or in colonies depending upon it for protection. The