and make a formidable invasion of this State. After the orders given to General Smith by General Halleck, which were to operate with Mower, I have carefully considered the distance and uncertainty of effecting anything except in conjunction with General Steele. I concluded that it would be best for his and any other force put at my disposal to encamp at Cape Girardeau a few days to await developments. If they go inland, transportation must be provided. If wanted below, they are on the river, equally convenient to move in that or this direction. Next to putting them wholly at my disposal for a movement by Rolla and Springfield for the offensive in the southwest, this seems advisable, and in the impossibility of consulting General Canby you must decide.

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Major-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS SAINT LOUIS DISTRICT, Numbers 191.
Saint Louis, Mo., September 11, 1864.

* * * * *

III. The commanding officer Second Sub-District will relieve and send to Saint Louis all of the One hundred and thirty-fifth and One hundred and forty-fifth Illinois Volunteers in the Second Sub-District.

* * * * * *

By order of Brigadier General Thomas Ewing, jr.:

H. HANNAHS,
Lieutenant and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

PILOT KNOB, MO., September 11, 1864.

Brigadier-General EWING:

Captain McElroy has information of 1,500 rebels at Doniphan, Mo., and fears an attack on Patterson.

JAMES WILSON,

Major, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF CENTRAL MISSOURI,
Warrensburg, Mo., September 11, 1864.

Major General W. S. ROSECRANS,

Commanding Department of the Missouri, Saint Louis:

GENERAL: I have the to acknowledge the receipt of your telegraph directing me to prepare secretly the Second Colorado Cavalry to report to General Curtis. The reduction of the effective force of the First, Fourth, and Seventh Missouri State Militia by re-enlistment and removal to Saint Louis, the necessary mustering out of the One hundred and thirty-fifth Illinois, 100-days' men, this week; the delay in mustering in the Forty-fifth [Missouri], in consequence of the instructions of Colonel Bonneville not to muster six and twelve months' men in the same regiment, will generally weaken this command; and if the Second Colorado moves out of the district before other troops arrive to take their place it will necessarily leave the country in a very exposed position. The organization of citizens is not completed under Order 107,