your application on the ground that "Badly" would either command you or thwart all your operations. I don't think General Grant's judgment of men by any means infallible, but he has had considerable experience with all three of these officers. Banks is still lounging round Congress and the White House, very bitter, I understand, on you and me. I think he and Butler are about played out. I hope your expedition will be off before this reaches you, for General Grant is very impatient at delays and too ponderous preparations. He says that nearly all our generals are too late in starting, and carry too much with them. Sherman's army is certainly using its legs to great advantage. There are various rumors of cabinet changes, but I do not think that Mr. Stanton will leave the War Department, at least not for the present. How is your correspondent, Mrs. Duncan? Having exhausted the President, Secretary of War, General Grant, General Holt, and the Adjutant-General, she has made an onslaught upon one of my aides, who had the misfortune to certify to a copy of a paper which was sent to her. Poor fellow, he is greatly to be pitied. My kind regards to Mrs. Canby.

Yours, truly,

H. W. HALLECK.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. MIL. DIV. OF WEST MISSISSIPPI, Numbers 59.
New Orleans, La., February 28, 1865.

1. At this own request, and with the consent of his commanding general, Captain M. K. Cook, aide-de-camp to Major General S. A. Hurlbut, is hereby temporarily assigned to duty on the staff of the major-general commanding the division, and will be obeyed and respected accordingly.

2. General Orders, Numbers 22, current series, from these headquarters, which defines the limits of transportation allowed for troops in the field, is hereby so far modified in regard to the Separate Cavalry Brigade, commanded by Brigadier General T. J. Lucas, as to allow each regiment one wagon in addition to the allowance fixed by the aforesaid order.

3. The Second Massachusetts Battery of Light (horse) Artillery is hereby attached to the Separate Cavalry Brigade commanded by Brigadier General T. J. Lucas.

4. The troops referred to in paragraph 4, Special Orders, Numbers 52, current series, from these headquarters, as being detached from the Department of Mississippi, and temporarily transferred to the Department of the Gulf, comprise the following-named regiments: Forty-sixth U. S. Colored Infantry, Fifty-fifth U. S. Colored Infantry, Sixty-first U. S. Colored Infantry.

* * * * *

6. Captain Frederic Speed, assistant adjutant-general of volunteers, is hereby relieved from duty at headquarters Southern Division of Louisiana, and will proceed to Memphis, Tenn., and report for duty to the commanding general Department of Mississippi.

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10. Captain Richard Penney, assistant quartermaster, U. S. Volunteers, will report without delay to the commanding general and chief quartermaster of the Sixteenth Army Corps for assignment to duty with the Second Division of that Corps.

By order of Major General E. R. S. Canby:

C. T. CHRISTENSEN,
Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.