the river monitors. The two sent on my previous applications were so well suited to the work and so effective that I am induced to ask for more.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. R. S. CANBY,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS SPECIAL SCOUTS, Natchez, Miss., September 20, 1864.

Colonel C. T. CHRISTENSEN,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Mil. Div. of West Mississippi:

SIR: I herewith inclose to you a report of my command and their operations for the pasts ten days. The property which has not been definitely reported will be so reported in my next report, when the exact quantity and quality is ascertained. In the captured mail there was but very little of a strictly military character, and the most of the information obtained was from private soldiers' letters to their families, the chief of which is that the troops which have been encamped at Monroe, La., are moving north to Arkansas; Walker's and Polignac's division passed through Monroe on the 5th of September, and that the whole army of the Trans-Mississippi Department were under immediate marching orders. All letters of any importance will, in accordance to orders, be immediately forwarded to Colonel Myer, chief signal officer at your headquarters. General Richard Taylor is in command of the Department of Mississippi and was at Meridian on the 6th of September. Major-General Wharton commands all the forces about Monroe, La.

I am, sir, with great respect, your most obedient servant,

I. N. EARL,

First Lieutenant Co. D, 4th Wisconsin Cav., Commanding Special Scouts.

[Inclosure.]

On the evening of the 12th of September I went with my command on board the steamer Ida May and proceeded up the river. On the morning of the 13th I landed about twenty-five of my men at Saint Joseph, La., and went about seven miles into the country. I captured two Confederate soldiers who were traveling through the country, but were not armed. I also brought in three mules. As the boat needed repairs, I then proceeded to Vicksburg for that purpose. I arrived at Vicksburg on the morning of the 14th. On the 15th, while the boat was undergoing repairs, I crossed the river opposite Vicksburg and scouted the country west, staying the night of the 15th near Richmond, La.; from thence traveled a few miles west; then, turning south, struck the Mississippi River at New Carthage and returned to Vicksburg by the river road, where I arrived about 7 o'clock on the morning of the 17th. I saw but little sings of the enemy; but a force was reported to be six miles west of where I penetrated. The country I passed over was thoroughly desolated, nearly every house being burned and scarcely any of the inhabitants remaining. The boat having finished its repairs, I started down the river on the evening of the 18th. At 2 o'clock on the morning of the 19th I landed twenty-five of my command six miles above Saint Joseph, on the Louisiana side of the river; rode to Saint Joseph, and thence, by way of the plank road, into the country. When five miles from Saint Joseph,