Powers has been ordered across the Mississippi. He was at Whitesville, Miss., with his own and Griffith's regiments. The point of crossing has not been ascertained, but will probably be somewhere near Fort Adams. If this statement is correct it indicates and intention on the part of the Confederates to make a further resistance west of the Mississippi. Deserters from Galveston who left Virginia Point March 22 give the following as the distribution of Cook's heavy artillery: Company A, stationed at Fort Point; Company B, at Virginia Point; Company C, at Virginia Point; Company D, at Alexandria, La; Company E, at draw of the bridge; Company F, at battery below the bridge, on the island; Company G, in the city, Company H, at Pelican Spit (Fort Jackson); Company I, at south battery; Company K, at Fort Magruder. The companies number on the rolls about ninety each, but have only thirty or forty effectives, making less than 500 effectives in the Regiment. There are two torpedo-boats building in Goose Creek, thirty-five miles above Galveston, toward Houston. The boiler of and old engine was taken for them from the Texas and New Orleans Railroad. A deserter from Houston, who left there about the middle of March, states that General Walker has resumed command of his old district, which at that time was at Huntsville, Tex., and General Magruder had returned to command the district. Spaight's Twenty-fourth [Twenty-first] Texas Infantry and Gillespie's cavalry Regiment were stationed two or three miles outside of Houston. The Twenty-fourth [Twenty-first] Infantry was about 1,100 strong, including absentees. Gillespie's Regiment has 400 or 500. The cars run from Houston to Beaumont, on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad. There are not more than twenty-one serviceable cars of any description and four engines on the road. They run a train on each end of the road on account of the bridge across the Trinity being broken down. There are on Sabine Lake the following steam-boats: The Florida, the Josiah Bell, the Sunflower, the Grand Bay, and the Roebuck. They are engaged in the cotton trade. Houston is the general depot for supplies for all posts within reach, but they do not get more than thirty or forty day's supplies ahead from the collection of tithes throughout that section of the State.

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.)

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. SOUTHERN DIV, OF LOUISIANA, Numbers 17. New Orleans, April 18, 1865.

Major Wickham Hoffman, assistant adjutant-general of volunteers, having been assigned to duty at these headquarters by proper authority, is hereby announced as assistant adjutant-general and chief of staff of the Southern Division of Louisiana.

T. W. SHERMAN,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NATCHEZ, Numbers 16. Natchez, Miss., April 18, 1865.

The nation's calamity, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, and its Secretary of State, William H. Seward, demands a public expression of mourning and respect.