SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, Numbers 55.
New Orleans, February 27, 1865.

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11. Brigadier General Thomas J. McKean, U. S. Volunteers, will report to Major General F. J. Herron, U. S. Volunteers, commanding Northern Division of Louisiana, for assignment to duty.

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By command of Major-General Hurlbut:

J. C. STONE,
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. SOUTHERN DIV. OF LOUISIANA, Numbers 69.
New Orleans, February 27, 1865.

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4. Colonel J. Hale Sypher, Eleventh U. S. Colored Heavy Artillery, is relieved of the command of the Artillery Camp of Instruction at Greeneville.

5. The headquarters of the Eleventh U. S. Colored Heavy Artillery, Colonel J. H. Sypher commanding, will be removed to Plaquemine, to which place Colonel Sypher will repair and relieve Major Shaw, Eleventh U. S. Colored Heavy Artillery, of the commanding of that post. The quartermaster's department will furnish the necessary transportation.

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By command of Brigadier-General Sherman:

FREDERIC SPEED,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, February 27, 1865.

Major General F. J. HERRON,

Commanding Northern Division of Louisiana:

GENERAL: In reply to yours of the 23rd I would say that I concur in your views as to the east side of the river. Any pressure that may show itself in that direction is temporary. The manifest tendency of affairs will be to concentrate the Southern forces somewhere about Selma, or perhaps farther east in Alabama or Georgia. If they do not do this they will cease to be an organized force under general control for campaign operations. Mobile will unquestionably be evacuated as soon as Canby develops his forces on the mainland. If Kirby Smith means fight he will show his dead of column within ten days after this expedition leaves New Orleans somewhere on the Atchafalaya, either threatening the river near Morganza or the railroad near La Fourche Crossing. Four regiments have been ordered down from Memphis. What they will do I do not know. Two or three of these you will stop at Morganza, Port Hudson, or Baton Rouge, as you please. One I wish to come to the city, to be sent to Brashear City. With this force and good understanding with the gun-boats Morganza can be held any reasonable length of time. It is certainly on that side that you must expect attack. There is but one contingency that I can foresee in which much force can be developed on the east. If the Mobile and Ohio Railroad should not be interfered with before the evacuation of