HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI, OFFICE OF CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER,
New Orleans, La., April 28, 1865.

Lieutenant Colonel C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Asst. Adjt. General, Military Division of West Mississippi:

COLONEL: I have the honor to submit to your consideration the following report of information received at this office this 28th day of April, 1865: Mr. Bell, a scout, reports that he crossed the Mississippi from Morganza to Tunica in a skiff and obtained the following information in regard to the crossings of the Mississippi: The only place of crossing below Natchez is at Tunica Bend, and no crossings are made except by skiffs since the water has been so high. No persons of any importance have crossed there within the last month. It is not considered possible that any troops will attempt to cross during the high water. Nothing was heard of an intention to cross Power's and Griffith's regiments from East Louisiana. A few furloughed men occasionally cross. A mail crosses weekly in both directions. Friday is the regular day for the meting of the couriers at the Mississippi to exchange mail, but of late there has been some irregularity about it. A man named Curry, living near Tunica Landing, has been the ferryman on the east side. The couriers are escorted by twelve men. The skiffs leave Tunica at night, passing down into Old River, and thence the mail is taken to Simsport. The route used before high water was near Fort Adams and the upper mouth of Red River. A gentleman thoroughly conversant with the blockade-running business at Havana, who left that place on the 22nd instant, states that there have been as many as twenty-five different steamers engaged in running into Galveston, and nearly all have been successful. The most important ones are the Francis, built by Morgan, at Wilmington, Del., and owned by Henderson, of Havan, or some parties in the North, Laying up for repairs in Havan, only having made on trip; the Owl, Captain Maffitt, is in Galveston and expected back to Havana; the Lunar, Clyde steamer, Captain Robinson, to sail for Galveston in a few days; the Albatross, Clyde steamer, three smoke stacks; the Badger, Clyde steamer, Captain Brown, iron vessel with turtle back; the Fox, Clyde steamer, Captain Lawless, like the Badger; the Colonel Lamb, like the Badger, but the best of the Clyde steamers; the Denby Clyde steamer, wooden, is on her twenty-first trip; the Major Whiting, like a Long Island Sound boat, and the Pelican, propeller. The business is decreasing, not because there is any danger from the blockading fleet, but from the scarcity of cotton at Galveston. The trade with Matamoras is dead, on account of the expense in transporting the cotton through Texas. There are a few light-draft vessels running into Saint Marks, Fla.

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.)

HEADQUARTERS SOUTHERN DIVISION OF LOUISIANA,
New Orleans, April 28, 1865.

Colonel S. B. HOLABIRD,

Chief Quartermaster:

A crevasse has just opened on the left bank opposite Chalmette, and it is said can be stopped if attended to promptly with the necessary aid.