HEADQUARTERS BRENT'S CAVALRY BRIGADE,
Lodi Plantation, March 23, 1865.

Major J. P. SMITH,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

MAJOR: The Atchafalaya and the mouth of Red River rose two inches in twenty-four hours previous to 11 a. m. yesterday. The Mississippi has again risen. On the 21st instant an expedition of the enemy came up Grand Lake and landed fifty negro troops just back of Charleston, on the Bayou Teche. Captain Murphy immediately attacked them with twenty men of Company F, Seventh Louisiana Cavalry, and drove them back to their transport, which opened with artillery on him. The expedition then left and sailed for Bayou Pigeon. I do not know whether a certain truce reported in New Orleans papers to have been made between the Federal General McKane [McKean] and the Confederate Captain Ratliff has been violated by the expedition, as I have no knowledge of its terms. I have ordered Captain Murphy's detachment to be re-enforced by another company of the Seventh Louisiana Cavalry, in view of this expedition and another which is being prepared by the enemy in the waters of the Black, in rear of Brashear City. The prohibition against the trade from New Orleans to Matamoras has been removed, and it is understood that it was originally caused by the suspicion of the military authorities that Colonel Harai Robinson, provost-marshal, was speculating in permits. I send you the New Orleans paper of the 20th instant, received from Captain Murphy on the lower Teche.

Yours, &c.,

J. L. BRENT,

Brigadier-General.

(Copy to Captain J. G. Clarke, assistant adjutant-general.)

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DIST. OF INDIAN TERRITORY, Numbers 11.
Fort Towson, C. N., March 23, 1865.

I. Captain B. W. Marston is relieved from duty with the Indian Division, and is hereby announced as assistant inspector-general, District of Indian Territory, and will be obeyed and respected accordingly.

By order of Brigadier General D. H. Cooper:

T. M. SCOTT,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. CAV. FORCES, FRONT LINES, BRENT'S CAV. Brigadier,
Lodi Plantation, March 24, 1865.

Major J. P. SMITH,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

MAJOR: Everything on the Red River, Atchafalaya, Bayou Teche, Black and Ouachita Rivers are reported as quiet. Nine gun-boats at the mouth of the Red River. Colonel Harrison, on the 22nd, says that nothing has been heard of the column of the enemy reported from department headquarters as advancing from Arkansas toward Camden. His pickets are on the Bayou Bartholomew, and on the 19th instant he was ordered by me to open communication with the nearest body of