tant-General's Office, dated January 1, 1865, is hereby assigned to temporary duty as acting provost-marshal-general of the Military Division of the Southwest.

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By command of Major-General Sheridan:

E. B. PARSONS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, Numbers 171. New Orleans, La., June 27, 1865.

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3. By the true construction of the act of Congress approved March

3, 1863, local State courts are divested of jurisdiction over actions against officers of the General government for acts done or omitted to be done in their official capacity. The civil courts of the State of Louisiana having, with the concurrence of the military authorities, been opened for the transaction of their ordinary business, the commanding general desires to call attention to the provisions of this law of Congress and directs:

First. That hereafter no action or suit at law be entertained by any local court, of civil or criminal jurisdiction, within the limits of this department against any officer in the military, naval, or civil service for any act done in virtue or by color of his office.

Second. Suits or action of this character, if any, now pending in the civil courts of this State are hereby discontinued, and the process, pleadings, returns, and other records pertaining to them will be forwarded by the clerk, or other officer having them in charge, to these headquarters for safe-keeping.

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14. Captain M. J. Daniels, commissary of subsistence of volunteers, is assigned to duty at Baton Rouge, La., and will proceed without delay to that point and report to [Captain] E. E. Shelton, commissary of subsistence of volunteers, for instructions.

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By order of Major General E. R. S. Canby:

J. SCHUYLER CROSBY,
Bvt. Lieutenant Colonel, Aide-de-Camp, and Actg. Asst. Adjt. General

HEADQUARTERS NORTHERN DIVISION OF LOUISIANA,

Shreveport, La., June 27, 1865.

Brigadier General J. W. FORSYTH,

Chief of Staff:

GENERAL: I am to-day in receipt of a report from Lieutenant-Colonel Matthews, the commissioner sent by me to meet certain Indian tribes and arrange a temporary treaty with them. Some days before he reached Fort Towson the report of Smith's surrender was received there and the council disbanded, the rebel commissioners also leaving. Colonel Matthewes, however, met the principal men of the Choctaw Nation and some others, having a pleasant interview with them and arranging for a grand council of all the tribes on September 1, 1865, at Armstrong Academy. This was in accordance with my suggestion and of which I notified You. My idea was that the Government would send an authorized commissioner, fully empowered to make a definite treaty. Colonel Matthewes entered into a temporary arrangement with the