HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Shreveport, March 6, 1865.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General:

SIR: I have the honor to recommend the promotion of Major General John B. Magruder to the grade of lieutenant-general in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, and respectfully request that it may be brought to the favorable notice of the President for his action. General Magruder commands a corps consisting of one division of four brigades Arkansas infantry, one division of two brigades Missouri infantry, one division of two brigades Missouri cavalry, numbering from 12,000 to 15,000 effective men. General Magruder merits reward for his recapture of Glaveston before I was assigned to the command of the department and for the successful military administration of his district. I will make no recommendation in regard to the date from which this promotion should take effect. The president must judge whether it should go back tot he recapture of Galveston or whether it should be made subsequent to that of Lieutenant General S. B. Buckner.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. KIRBY SMITH,

General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT, Numbers 18.
Shreveport, La., March 6, 1865.

A bureau of the Engineer Department is hereby established, and until further orders will be located at Shreveport, La. All papers, reports, &c., required by regulations to be sent to Richmond will be forwarded to the chief of bureau, Trans-Mississippi Department.

Lieutenant Colonel H. T. Douglas is announced as chief of engineer bureau. He will continue to discharge the duties of chief engineer.

By command of General E. Kirby Smith:

S. S. ANDERSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Shreveport, La., March 7, 1865.

His Excellency President JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President of the Confederate States, Richmond, Va.:

I desire employing my whole force in co-operation witht he armies east of the Mississippi. Two movements can be undertaken: an invasion of Missouri or a march across the Mississippi. Both are physically difficult; their successful execution is uncertain; near 400 miles of destitution separates us from Missouri. The Mississippi, carefull guarded by iron-clads, with at least 200 miles of exhaustion, separates [us] from supplies in Mississippi. If crossing is effected it will be without transportation or artillery. I desire strictly to carry out the wishes of the Executive, and ask instructions from War Department as to which movement shall be made. Neither can be undertaken before June, or possibly July. I will push preparations for both, awaiting instructions. My effective strength in department is 19,000 enlisted men of infantry and artillery; 17,000 enlisted men of cavalry, of which seventeen regiments (6,000 enlisted men) are being dismounted; in addition 4,000