where the steam-boat Mariner was aground, which was successfully destroyed by fire. The boat wa loaded with coal for the Mississippi squadron, and the vessel and cargo were valued at $60,000. The work of recruiting is progressing toward a full and tangible completion. There is great unity of feeling, and the citizens are all possessed with the highest feelings of confidence and enthusiasm. In ten days more I feel confident of having 1,000 stand of fire-arms to be distributed among the unarmed men, which, with the arms I hope to capture, I shall endeavor to arm the whole force in this section. I expect to bring to the army when I return a division 5,000 strong for one of the new major-generals. I send you the latest papers in camp; the news from the East is still glorious. I desire to call General Price's attention to the fact that when I evacuated Clarendon the Federals burnt the largest portion of the town and murdered one or two innocent citizens.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JO. O. SHELBY,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

GENERAL ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS CHURCHILL'S DIVISION, Numbers 37.
Camp Near Camden, Ark., July 5, 1864.

I. The present encampment at this place will be known as Camp Yell, in memory of the late Colonel Yell, who died at Mansfield, La., on the 26th of May, 1864.

II. Attention is called to paragraphs 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, and 451, in regard to deceased officer and soldiers. The quarterly return for the second quarter of 1864, ending June 30, 1864; will be forwarded as the regulations direct.

By command of Brigadier-General Tappan:

B. S. JOHNSON,

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

ALEXANDRIA, LA., July 6, 1864.

General BRAXTON BRAGG:

MY DEAR GENERAL: I am impelled irresistibly by a sense of public duty, by a desire to vindicate truth, and by the hope of averting disaster from my State and country, to write you this letter. So effectual is the blockade of the Mississippi or so transcendent in importance are the events of the East that you know but little of what transpires here except those prominent, salient facts that are stamped upon history as battles. How they were brought about, and what good or ill management succeeded them, you know nothing of. The reports of the battle give you no insight into these secrets. On the other side of the river the newspapers were last year sounding the praises of the "Hero of two Richmonds," when General Smith, whose great generalship had in winning the battle of Richmond, La., entitled him to this congnomen (if the newspapers were to be believed) had not been nearer that place than Shreveport. So recently the papers have been glorifying over his recent achievements, and Congress has passed laudatory resolutions, when every one here knows that the grand invasion of Banks, made in sufficient force to have held the State, was hurled back by the daring and generalship of General Taylor, while Kirby Smith, only forty