that your action in closing the lines to all egress, including safe-conducts, is approved.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSIPPI,
Memphis, Tenn., February 26, 1865.

Rear-Admiral S. P. LEE, U. S. Navy,

Commanding Mississippi Squadron:

I beg leave to inclose for your information a copy of a letter* which Major-General Washburn, at Vicksburg, has written to Lieutenant Commander Bacon relative to movements of the enemy, with armed launches, on the Yazoo or in that vicinity. I do not know whether he forwarded a copy to you, but I considered it important that you should have the intelligence, and I hope it will not be inconvenient to have the rive patrolled as actively as possible from Vicksburg to the mouth of the Arkansas. It is not improbable that the rebels have at their command a large number of bateux, skiffs, and other floats, which they can use in the Yazoo and its confluents, and it is known that they have one small steam-boat there. I can only conjecture what they intend to do with the water craft which General Washburn reports having been sent up the Mississippi Central. Three ideas suggest themselves. First, the capture of Mississippi steam-boats or the surprise of a gunboat. Second, the crossing of a force from the Trans-Mississippi to the east side. Third, the embarkation of a division in small craft on the Yazoo, and dropping down in the night to the Mississippi and attempting a landing by surprise on the levee inside the works of Vicksburg to destroy the arsenal, magazines, and other public property, or to attempt the capture of the place, in the present reduced state of the garrison, by surprise. If I can gather further information I will notify you, and will, with the limited means now left at my disposal, co-operate with you in any plan you may think proper to adopt.

I have the honor to remain, very respectfully,

N. J. T. DANA,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSIPPI,
Memphis, Tenn., February 26, 1865.

Lieutenant Commander E. Y. McCauley, U. S. Navy,

Commanding Naval Division, Natchez:

I inclose for your information a copy of a letter written by Major-General Washburn, February 22, to Lieutenant-Commander Bacon, and of one by myself to Rear-Admiral Lee, concerning designs of the enemy with launches and armed boats on Yazoo River. + I hope you will find it convenient to co-operate with General Washburn in any effort he may have to make.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

N. J. T. DANA.

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*See 22nd, p. 945.

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+See pp. 945, 988.