upon the extended line of border settlements, and it is with that view I have ventured lately to recommend to Major-General Curtis that General Sully's column be dispatched north toward Devil's Lake instead of south and west of the Missouri as proposed. In my judgment the danger to the border is to be apprehended from the region north and east of the Missouri River, and I have already explained verbally to General Curtis that there is not a sufficient force in this district to enable me to dispatch a force into the distant region of Devil's Lake with a due regard to the safety of the long line of frontier exposed to the visitations of the savages.

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

H. H. SIBLEY,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

NEW ORLEANS, May 22, 1865.

Major General E. R. S. CANBY:

Captain Foster, of the secret service, just returned from a long trip in West Louisiana. He left Shreveport on April 16, 1865, and came by Opelousas. The whole country between Bayou Boeuf and the Mississippi is under water, and there is steam-boat communication to Opelousas. From there to the Sabine the people are loyal, the country in fine condition for field operations, but utterly destitute, although affording good grazing. Beyond Sabine River there is splending forage everywhere. Captain Foster gives about verbatim the same account of military affairs as McKee. Texas and Missouri troops are the only ones who express a willingness to fight. All Louisianians and others are demoralized and almost beyond control. It is the general opinion that the leading spirits delay the final surrender by long-spun negotiations, for the sole reason to get all the produce from the Sabine and other streams through Texas into Mexico. Selfish purposes, and nothing else, guide these men. The sentiments of the Missourians will undergo a great change in consequence of the late order from the War Department.

P. J. OSTERHAUS,

Major-General and Chief of Staff.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. MIL. DIV. OF WEST MISSISSIPPI, Numbers 55.
New Orleans, La., May 22, 1865.

I. The terms of the surrender agreed upon by Lieutenant-General Taylor and Major-General Canby on the 4th instant include all officers and soldiers of the Confederate armies serving within the limits of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, and all such persons within the limits of this division who have not been paroled, by reason of having been absent from the appointed places of rendezvous, will report themselves to the commander of the nearest U. S. military post, surrender the arms and other public property that may be in their possession, and give their paroles. Failing to do this within the next thirty days, they will be arrested and sent North as prisoners of war. Commanders of military posts to whom these parties report themselves will give the paroles and passes as authorized by the terms of surrender. A register of the paroles, giving the name, rank, and regiment of the persons paroled, and date of the parole, will be kept, and one copy of it transmitted to the provost-marshal-general, at these headquarters, on the last day of each month.