HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, March 24, 1865.

[Major-General CANBY:]

GENERAL: I have just learned, from a safe source in my opinion, that 6,000 infantry of the Trans-Mississippi Army have agreed to cross the rive and will move in a few days.

This intelligence has been communicated to the fleet and every precaution will be taken. The plan appears to be to threaten Morganza and to plant a battery sixty miles above at the same time, while the crossing is to be effected some thirty miles above Red River. Herron is fully posted and will be on the alert.

Your obedient servant,

S. A. HURLBUT,

Major-General, Commanding.

WASHINGTON, D. C., March 24, 1865.

Major-General POPE,

Saint Louis:

General Grant's instructions have been sent to you by mail; you should receive them by to-morrow. Wait at Saint Louis till you get his letter.

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General and Chief of Staff.

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, Mo., March 24, 1865.

Honorable William A. HALL:

MY DEAR SIR: In view of my conversation with you when you were in this city, I desire to present for your consideration a few remarks and suggestions which I deem important, and to which I invite your careful and dispassionate attention. In common with all good citizens, you recognized, in your conversation with me, the absolute necessity, of an immediate effort to re-establish civil government in Missouri, and you seemed to agree with me in the measures which I contemplated to secure that end. In order that any success may be achieved, it is essential that mere party politics be abandoned in this matter. Civil administration cannot be restored in Missouri unless all parties in the State sustain the State authorities cordially and earnestly in the attempt to administer it. Although it may so happen that some of the measures of the State executive do not meet the approval of the opposition party, yet a man of your intelligence cannot fail to understand that civil law, even through not well administered, is greatly preferable to martial law, and that any errors or mistakes of civil administration are within reach of the people and can, in time, be corrected by them. It is needless to say that such redress for bad administration of martial law is not to be had. The only manner in which success can be secured in returning to civil administration is by sustaining your State executive in all efforts to restore the dominion of civil law, even though some of the measures he may adopt seem to be objectionable. By uniting all the political parties, or rather all good citizens, with the military in the support of your State authorities you can secure for them the respect and confidence without which no good