is ordered that a limited number of cavalry regiments, having the shortest time to serve, be dismounted and mustered out by entire organizations and the horses thus obtained taken to mount the dismounted cavalrymen of regiments having the longest time to serve. The number of regiments to be discharged will be determined by the number of dismounted men of the long-term organizations. The muster out of the regiments will be made under the regulations promulgated in General Orders, Numbers 94, current series, from this office. Please acknowledge receipt of this.

By order of the Secretary of War:

T. M. VINCENT,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, June 27, 1865. (Received 9 a. m. 28th.)

Lieutenant General U. S. GRANT,

Commanding, &c., Washington, D. C.:

General Hawkins has been recommended for the brevet of major-general, and I have the honor to recommend, if it be conferred, that he be assigned to duty according to that brevet. This with a view to his assignment to the command of Western Louisiana. General Sheridan also wishes the assignment to the district.

Respectfully,

E. R. S. CANBY,

Major-General Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, June 27, 1865.

Major General J. E. SMITH,

Commanding, &c., Memphis, Tenn.:

SIR: I have conferred with General Bouton upon the subject of Your communication of the 20th instant. I do not think it will be wise for the Government to assume the management of the railroads in the insurrectionary States, except in the special cases where the roads are immediately indispensable for Government service and the companies controlling them are without the means, energy, or disposition to put them in working order. The inclosed General Orders, Numbers 85,* was issued under the authority of instructions from Lieutenant-General Grant, to whom I had reported the action taken by me with reference to certain roads in Alabama and Mississippi, and think this arrangement is to be preferred to any other, for the following reasons: First. It will produce an active competition between the several companies, and induce greater energy and activity on the part of those interested in them. Second. It will bring into the South more rapidly than any other way Northern capital, skill, and labor and with them virtually the rapid diffusion of Northern sentiment and influence. Third. The assimilation of industry and moneyed interests will have an important influence in restoring peace and harmony and in re-establishing civil authority. Fourth. It will no doubt be to the interest of the Government to supply any of the railroads that are now deficient in stock or

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* See June 5, p. 777.

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