service of three companies of the Fifth Kansas Cavalry. I have received no answer. Their terms have expired. There is no mustering officer here. What shall be done with them! Please have the general direct what field officers shall be mustered out with them.

POWELL CLAYTON,

Colonel, Commanding.

Lieutenant -Colonel GREEN,

Assistant Adjutant- General, Department of Arkansas.

(Same to Captain C. H. Dyer, assistant adjutant- general, District of Little Rock.)

JULY 13-16, 1864.- Expedition from Helena, Ark., to Buck Island,in the Mississippi River.

REPORTS.

Numbers 1.- Brigadier General Napoleon B. Buford, U. S. Army, commanding District of Eastern Arkansas.

Numbers 2.- Captain Rudolph Shoenemann, Sixth Minnesota Infantry.

Numbers 1. Report of Brigadier General Napoleon B. Buford, U. S. Army, commanding District of Eastern Arkansas.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF EASTERN ARKANSAS,
Helena, Ark., July 16, 1864.

DEAR SIR: I learned that the enemy had crossed arms into Arkansas at Buck Island. I sent a cavalry force to reconnoiter who have returned. They report 1,500 rifles and a large quantity of cartridges have been crossed and received by Shelby's men.

On the 14th artillery firing was heard for three hours on White River. I expect the river is, or soon will be, blockaded.

On the 8th instant I wrote the inclosed letter, not knowing to whom I could safely send it. You know the restrictions on military correspondence. I finally sent one copy to General Canby and one to General Hitchcock, who is my warm personal friend, and who is in the Secretary of War's office. Please take two minutes to tell me what you think of it.

Your friend,

N. B. BUFORD.

Major- General WASHBURN,

Commanding District of West Tennessee.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF EASTERN ARKANSAS,
Helena, Ark., July 8, 1864.

Why do we continue to occupy the interior of Arkansas! What good has arisen from the occupation! Have the meeting of the convention and the Legislature at Little Rock restored the State to the Union! What harm has resulted! Has not the cost of maintaining the army in the interior been vastly beyond what it would have been on the banks of the Mississippi River! Have we not lost two gun- boats and several transports on the Arkansas River and one gun- boat on White River! Have we not lost three regiments, 700 wagons, 4,000 mules, 2,000 cav-