SHREVEPORT, August 4, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel J. F. BELTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Camden:

General Smith directs you to send the officer who brought dispatches from General Shelby back to him at once, with orders to General Shelby, directing him to hold himself in readiness for rapid movements. General Price will be with Shelby by the 20th or soon after.

W. R. BOGGS,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

HEADQUARTERS TRANS- MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Shreveport, La., August 4, 1864.

Major General S. PRICE,

Commanding District of Arkansas:

GENERAL: Your will make immediate arrangements for a movement into Missouri, with the entire cavalry force of your district. General Shelby should be instructed to have his command in Northeast Arkansas ready to move by the 20th instant. You can instruct him to await your arrival with the column immediately under your command. A brigade of Louisiana troops, under Colonel Harrison, has been ordered to report to you. They should be added to General Marmaduke's command, and with his old brigade constitute his division. General lark should be transferred to the command of Marmaduke's old brigade. Colonel Greene should be left in Arkansas, together with the other regimental commanders whose mutinous conduct has already proved them unfitted for command. General Shelby's old brigade, increased by the one raised in East Arkansas, can be organized into a division under his immediate command. General Fagan will command the division composed of Cabell's and Crawford's brigades. These skeleton organizations are best adapted for an expedition in which a large addition to your force is expected. These weak brigades should be filled by the regiments raided in Missouri, and you should scrupulously avoid the organization of any new brigades. You will carry a supply of ammunition for General Shelby's command in Northeast Arkansas, and should yourself be provided with ammunition sufficient for the expedition. You will scrupulously avoid al wanton acts of destruction and devastation, restrain your men,and impress upon them that their aim should be to secure success in a just and holy cause and not to gratify personal feeling and revenge. Rally the loyal men of Missouri, and remember that our great want is men, nd that your object should be, if you cannot maintain yourself in that country, to bring as large an accession as possible to your force. Your recruits will in all probability be mounted; deal frankly with the, and let them understand that mounted organizations, made there through necessity, are liable to be dismounted on their arrival in our lines, where forage and subsistence will not admit the maintenance of so large a cavalry fore. Make Saint Louis the objective point of your movement, which, if rapidly made, will put you in possession of that place,its supplies, and military stores, and which will do more toward rallying Missouri to your standard than the possession of any other point. Should you be compelled to withdraw from the State, make you retreat through Kansas and the Indian Territory, sweeping that country of its mules,horses, cattle, and military