MOBILE, August 24, 1864.

General S. COOPER:

Reliable advices from Camden, Ark., 12th, report General Price to be moving toward Missouri with about 13,000 cavalry. His advance already left.

D. H. MAURY,

Major-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT, Numbers 65.
Shreveport, La., August 25, 1864.

The following act of Congress is republished and the attention of commanding officers especially called thereto:

AN ACT to authorize the formation of new commands, to be composed of supernumerary officers, who may resign to join such commands, and to limit and restricts the appointment of officers in certain cases.

The Congress of the Confederate State do enact, That the President is hereby authorized to grant authority for the organization of companies, battalions, or regiments, to be composed of supernumerary officers of the Provisional Army.

SEC. 2. That it shall be lawful for any supernumerary officer to join said organization, or any other company in the Confederate service, which does not exceed the maximum prescribed by law, upon tender to the proper authorities of his resignation for that purpose.

SEC. 3. That the offices left vacant by such resignations shall not be filled, and that hereafter the lowest grade of commissioned officers of a company shall not be filled unless there are upon the rolls of the company for service at least forty-six non-commissioned officers and privates; nor shall the position of senior second lieutenant be filled in case of vacancy therein unless there are upon the rolls of the company for service at least thirty non-commissioned officers and privates; nor shall the position of first lieutenant be filled in case of a vacancy unless there are at least twenty non-commissioned officers and privates on the rolls of the company for service, which fact shall in each be certified to by the captain of the company and approved by the colonel of the regiment before such promotion can be made.

Approved June 14, 1864.

II. The above act is so constructed as to require that the requisite number of men shall be present for duty before an election or promotion can be had.

III. In case there shall not be twenty non-commissioned officers and privates for service in any company, and it should be deprived of all its officers, the company will cease to exist, and the men will be transferred to other companies in the same regiment or battalion.

IV. General Orders, Numbers 55, series 1863, is modified so that all persons who have been assigned to duty as medical officers by orders from these headquarters will be paid upon the production of said orders, as though they had received their appointments.

By command of General E. Kirby Smith:

S. S. ANDERSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[AUGUST 25, 1864.- For Taylor to Buckner and Taylor to Bragg, relating to the crossing of the Mississippi, see Part I, pp. 118, 120.]

ALEXANDRIA, LA., August 25, 1864.

Major GUY M. BRYAN,

Asst. Adjt. General, Hdqrs. Dept of the Trans-Mississippi:

MAJOR: While at Harrisonburg a few days ago I had the honor to receive your communication Numbers 3746, and to state that the communi-