alry horses, 6 pieces of artillery, and 1,000,000 cartridges in the interior! Have we not established trade stores in the interior by which the enemy has been supplied with a vast amount of goods, thus affording opportunities for corrupt traders to supply the enemy with the means of carrying on the war! Would not the maintenance of four fortified positions on the river and a strict blockade, preventing the enemy from getting supplies, have accomplished greater results with abut one- fourth the expenditure of men and means! I suggest the following disposition of troops in Arkansas:

First. A post should be fortified opposite Memphis to maintain dominion over the country and prevent the corrupt traders of Memphis from introducing a dollar's worth of merchandise into the interior.

Second. make Helena, which is partially fortified, the chief post and remove the seat of government to it, and drive out every secession sympathizer from the triangle formed by the Mississippi and White Rives, and a line drawn from Devall's Bluff to Memphis; inaugurate the civil government under the new constitution and laws and extend the area as fast as possible. Third. A post should be fortified on the large island between the mouths of White and Arkansas Rivers. It would require but a small garrison if supported by two gun- boats to watch the enemy's attempts to cross either river. Two thousand freedmen could be employed on this island and be made self- supporting in cutting wood for steam- boats. Fourth. I would recommend that the fourth post be established near Columbia or Lakeport or in that vicinity, which would communicate as directly with Camden and Shreveport as Little Rock does with those places. Two of the islands, 63 and 66, in the river, are safely garrisoned by single companies of troops and afford protection for the wood- choppers, most of whom are freedman. Other islands might be occupied in the same way.

Would not the navigation of the Mississippi River be much less liable to interruption by this distribution of the forces than by placing them in the interior! Has the possession of Little Rock prevented in the least degree the organization of the army of the rebels in the State! Would not the withdrawal of the troops from the interior to the banks of the Mississippi enable the fortified places to communicate with each other every twenty- four hours,and thus make the dominion of the river complete!

The season is approaching when the Arkansas and White Rivers become unnavigable. The maintenance of the overland communication from Helena to Little Rock requires the crossing of Big Creek, White, and Arkansas, and innumerable small streams and cypress swamps.

Numbers 2. Report of Captain Rudolph Schoenemann, Sixth Minnesota Infantry.

CAMP BUFORD, Near Helena, Ark., July 16, 1864.

GENERAL: Having received verbal orders from you to procure all the information practicable concerning certain Confederate forces alleged to have crossed the Mississippi River at or near Buck Island, I left this town on the evening of the 13th instant, on the steamer Dove, accompanying a force composed of Companies E and F, of the Sixth Minnesota Volunteer infantry, and - of the Fifteenth Illinois Cav-