officers of their respective parishes. No reason is given for disbanding them. A refugee who came in on the 19th instant reports fifty or sixty cavalry at almost every station on the Jackson railroad between Jackson and Amite. At Amite were twenty-five or thirty cavalry horses saddled. A few cavalry were looking about Ponchatoula. Most of the refugees report that they saw no soldiers at all on the Jackson railroad. There are no colored men in the vicinity of Ponchatoula or Springfield. A deserter reports that he saw a colored regiment drilling near Richmond, Va., and met several trains on the Richmond and Danville Railroad loaded with negroes going to Richmond. A Texas refugee states that he knows from statistics the increase of the slave population of that State, by running negroes into it from other States, to be 208,000.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. M. JACKSON,

Major, Tenth U. S. Colored Heavy Artillery.

(In absence of Captain S. M. Eaton, chief signal officer, Military Division of West Mississippi.)

BATON ROUGE, March 25, 1865.

(Received 9 a. m.)

General B. H. GRIERSON:

(Care Military Division Headquarters.)

I shall reach New Orleans to-night, and the remainder of my command by the 28th instant.

J. R. WEST,

Brigadier-General.

LITTLE ROCK, [March 25, 1865.]

Colonel J. M. TRUE,

Commanding:

The major-general commanding department recognizes in your dispatch of this a. m. * another success by Captain Norris and officers and me of the Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry, and thanks them again for their gallant efforts to rid the country of rebel guerrillas and cavalry rangers.

JOHN LEVERING,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, March 25, 1865. (Received 2 p. m.)

Major-General HALLECK,

Washington:

Full arrangements have been made for protection of all train across the plains. Orders in detail have been issued by General Dodge and published in all the papers regulating movement of trains and providing scouts. It is only necessary to refer applicants at Washington to this city.

JOHN POPE,

Major-General.

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*See p. 148.

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