which I know from the character of General Cameron he will not fail to make if the occasion requires it. Not intending to trammel the general with minute instructions as he is on the spot, I desire that he should always keep these two points in view whilst in command on the La Fourche, and if he ever finds it necessary to relinquish either, it is unnecessary to say it must be the first.

T. W. SHERMAN,

Brigadier-General.

HEADQUARTERS LA FOURCHE DISTRICT,
Thibodeaux, La., July 30, 1864.

CAPTAIN: Inclosed I have the honor to hand you Colonel Davis' report of the attack on his pickets last night.* I find on examining the letters captured that they are letters written by the soldiers to their friends while at Camp Brent, on Bayou Boeuf, ont he 20th, and not mailed. The most important language I see in them is this:

Our army is now marching slowly toward Pointe Coupee. Walker's division is going to Morgan's Ferry.

I am, truly, yours,

R. A. CAMERON,

Brigadier-General of Volunteers, Commanding District.

Captain MATTHEWS,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Defenses of New Orleans.

Numbers 2. Reports of Colonel Hasbrouck Davis, Twelfth Illinois Cavalry, commanding Post of Napoleonville, La.

HEADQUARTERS NAPOLEONVILLE,
July 30, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor to report an attack [on] my pickets last night. Three days ago I sent Captain Howk and Company L, seventy men and two commissioned officers, to picket and patrol the roads from Paincourtville toward Lake Natchez. I yesterday sent thirty men of I Company, under Lieutenant Graves, to increase the force. The inclosed chart+ will give you an idea of the position of the force last night. The camp of reserves was at Numbers 1 on the Spanish road; a picket of six men was at Numbers 2 on the Spanish road; a picket of four men was at Numbers 3 on the military road; a picket of four men was at Numbers 4 on the military road; a picket of five men was at Numbers 5 on the military road. Numbers 5 is about three miles out from the bayou. At 9 p. m. a patrol of one sergeant and eight men was sent across the plantations toward Marcelin Le Blanc's house, marked Numbers 6 on the chart. At that house they struck a considerable rebel picket and drove the away after a brisk skirmish, in which the rebels lost 1 man killed and 2 wounded, 1 horse killed and 2 captured. The patrol also took 15 guns, mostly fowling-pieces. The rebel party was probably Boone's battery, which had come into this county to steal horses. The patrol fell back to the pickets on the military road and were not pursued. Simultaneously with the above the pickets at Nos. 4 and 5 were attacked by a party coming across the plantation from a northerly direction. A

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*See next, post.

+Omitted as of no present importance.

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