HEADQUARTERS SOUTHERN DIVISION OF LOUISIANA,
New Orleans, La., April 25, 1865.

COMMANDING OFFICER FORT JACKSON:

Eight or ten of the crew of the rebel ram passed into the canal forty-two miles below here, probably with the purpose to pass to the Gulf by Fort Livingston. Notify Fort Livingston as soon as possible, and take any other means in your power to intercept them. Acknowledge receipt.

By order of Brigadier-General Sherman:

WICKHAM HOFFMAN,

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS,
Camden, Ark., April 25, 1865.

Major General J. J. REYNOLDS,

Commanding U. S. Forces in Arkansas:

GENERAL: Your communication of 14th instant, by flag of truce, with copy of correspondence between Generals Lee and Grant, terms of surrender, &c., of the Army of Northern Virginia, and proposing such terms for the surrender of the N. C. forces under my command, reached me to-day. It is the first instance within my knowledge of a commanding officer having been called on to surrender his army to an invisible enemy. Were it not that I am satisfied you are obeying the mandates of the Government you service, and that the proposition did not originate with you, your communication would have been returned unanswered.

Permit me to decline being the medium through which you desire to communicate your instructions from Washington City as to terms offered the commanding general of the Trans-Mississippi Department. The paper of yours from Washington says: "Perhaps General Kirby Smith and others may accept certain terms of surrender," and contains further the gratuitous information " that the Confederate Government has gone up. " This magnanimous proposal, couched in such elegant phrase, "General Kirby Smith and others, " will never be received through my command. Allow me, therefore, to suggest that you adopt some other mode to capture C. S. forces of this department.

Permit me to say in behalf of my troops that when they lay down their arms it will be after has been restored to their country and when her soil is rid of the invader, and upon terms which they expect to have the honor to dictate.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. F. FAGAN,

Major-General, Commanding District of Arkansas.

HEADQUARTERS, &C.,
Devall's Bluff, April 25, 1865- 4. 30 p. m.

Colonel JOHN LEVERING,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

Lieutenant Parrisen, aide-de-camp, bearer of dispatches under flag of truce to Brigadier General M. Jeff. Thompson, has just returned. He found it impossible to deliver the dispatches on account of the flooded state of