also just received. Access to Northeastern Arkansas would be easy for us had we the forces, but our small cavalry force has been scattered all over the State hunting guerrillas, and until the new infantry I am raising under the twelve-months' call are armed and mustered in I can do but little to ward off the blow. The course and dispositions on your part seem highly military and judicious. I trust General Steele will be able to squelch the movement until I get my men into service. The Secretary of War has dispatched for General Smith to stop at Cairo until we can see the results of the operations you and Steele have afoot.

Again thanking you for your promptitude and military courtesy, I remain, very truly, yours,

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Major-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI. Numbers 247.
Saint Louis, Mo., September 6, 1864.

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4. In accordance with the President's proclamation of the 3rd instant a salute of 100 guns will be fired at 12 m. to-morrow the 7th instant, within the limits of the city of Saint Louis, in honor of the recent victories of our arms at Atlanta, Ga. Colonel N. Cole, chief of artillery, Department of the Missouri, is charged with the execution of this order.

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By command of Major-General Rosecrans:

FRANK ENO,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF CENTRAL MISSOURI.

OFFICE OF TOPOGRAHICAL ENGINEER.

September 6, 1864.

Captain JAMES H. STEGER.

Assistant Adjutant-General:

SIR: I would respectfully report for the information of the general commanding district that in obedience to Special Orders, Numbers 157. headquarters District of Central Missouri, current series, that I went yesterday to La Mine bridge on the Pacific Railroad, to attend to the erection of the block-house at that point. I find that in the past week but little progress has been made in its erection, due in part to the almost utter impossibility of obtaining even two carpenters for the necessary framing and joining work; also that the troops stationed there have been the past week on scout and picket duty part of time and were necessarily withdrawn from the work, together with a large sick list, and the still incomplete organization of that detachment into the Forty-fifth Missouri Volunteers. These reasons, with the difficulty in procuring the suitable sawn lumber necessary for the building, have delayed its rapid completion. These difficulties have been, as far as it lay in my power, attended to, and during my stay yesterday I personally superintended the building, and left last evening with the first story nearly completed and all the timber, except the sawn lumber, upon the ground and hews out.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

EDWARD L. BERTHOUD.

Captain, Second Colorado Cavalry, and Topographical Engineer.