WASHINGTON, D. C., February 24, 1865.

(Received 6 p. m.)

Major-General POPE:

Dispatches just received announce that Wilmington is in possession of our troops.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, Mo., February 24, 1865.

Captain J. McC. BELL,

Asst. Adjt. General, Military Division of the Missouri:

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to report in relation to the assessment in Saint Louis that when I assumed command here I found a large number of refugees being supported here by the Government. Houses over the city for their occupation had been seized and rents accumulating that the Government would have to pay. I immediately wrote to General Halleck, and in a letter dated December 24, 1864, he instructed that where the local authorities would not protect and support these refugees the disloyal should be assessed to do it, and the buildings of any disloyal persons could be used for that purpose; that the Government would not pay for their support, &c. I consulted the city authorities. They refused to take the burden. The Sanitary Commission proposed to take charge of these people provided I would fixed up the old Lawson Hospital, get them together, and go to the necessary expense of making them comfortable. This was done at a cost of about $10,000, which the chief quartermaster, Colonel Myers, has expended in the payment of rent, for repairs, &c. This assessment of $10,000 was made to reimburse the quartermaster's department for amount expended and debts incurred, and if stopped will bring the whole matter back on Government. The change in this matter will save the Government in the end not less than $100,000. The assessment on Colonel McLaurin I considered too much, and have ordered it reduced $1,500. He was colonel of the Minute Men when the war commenced. I understood when this assessment was made that it was done in accordance with the views of the Government, and in fact it was my only alternative. I trust it will not be suspended as it has now been partly collected, and is mostly levied upon the property of rebels who have fled the State, gone South or to Europe.

I am, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

G. M. DODGE,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, February 24, 1865.

Captain JOS. McCL. BELL,

Asst. Adjt. General, Mil. Div. of the Missouri, Saint Louis, Mo.:

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to state, in answer to Major-General Halleck's telegram,* that when the Indians held the telegraph line, Overland route, Colonel Moonlight had but 400 effective men in [the] District of Colorado, and they were mostly en route from Fort Lyon to Denver and in South Colorado. The troops heretofore holding the

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*See Halleck to Pope, February 21, p. 933.

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