store-houses will also be sent. Brazos Island is destitute of wood and water and no greater force should be kept on the island than is necessary to guard the public stores. Four light-draft steamers for service on the Rio Grande will be sent to you. These will also answer for lightering across the Rio Grande bar, if for any reasons you find it advisable to do so. The number of Confederate to be paroled at Brownsville is estimated by the commissioners at 4,000, and as it is desirable that these men should be sent to their homes as soon as possible in order that they return to peaceful pursuits, you will please communicate as soon as possible with the commander at that place, appoint commissioners to parole them, and designate staff officers to receive the captured property. Rolls and other blanks will be sent to you from New Orleans. General rant advises me that the Twenty-fifth Corps will be sent to you. If it should report in Mobile Bay as originally ordered, I will direct it to follow you without delay. The chief engineer and chief signal officer have been directed to send you all maps and other information relating to the section of the country in which you will be operating, and the chiefs of the supply departments to make provisions for 30,000 men until further orders. Formal estimates indicating particularly the supplies that can be procured in the country at less cost than they can be sent from New Orleans should be forwarded at once. Please send back the transports as soon as they can be spared, as they are urgently needed for the transfer of other troops that are ordered to the coast of Texas. I presume that definite instructions from General Sheridan will reach you soon after your arrival at Brazos.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. R. S. CANBY,

Major-General, Commanding.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY FORCES, MILITARY DIV. OF WEST MISSISSIPPI, Numbers 19.
New Orleans, La., June 1, 1865.

I. In obedience to instructions from Major General E. R. S. Canby, Colonel Joseph Karge, commanding Second Brigade, Cavalry Forces, Military Division of West Mississippi, will immediately move with the Second New Jersey Cavalry by the most direct and practicable route to Vicksburg, Miss., where he will prepare his regiment for the muster out of such portions of it whose terms of service expire prior to October 1, 1865. Colonel G. M. L. Johnson, Thirteenth Indiana Cavalry, will assume command of the balance of the brigade, consisting of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Indiana Cavalry and Fourteenth Ohio Battery.

II. In obedience to instructions from Major General E. R. S. Canby, commanding Military Division of West Mississippi, the detachments of the Second New Jersey and Second Illinois Cavalry will immediately proceed via New Orleans to Vicksburg, Miss., reporting to the commanding officer of their respective regiments. The quartermaster's department will furnish the necessary transportation. Upon arrival at New Orleans the commanding officer detachment Second Illinois will report in person at these headquarters.

* * * *

By order of Bvt. Major General B. H. Grierson:

S. L. WOODWARD,
Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.