Captain Lee's guerrillas, seventy-five or eighty strong, on the 14th instant, were at Bone Wade's plantation, four miles above Floyd, La.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

FRANK W. MARSTON,

Major, Signal Corps, U. S. Army, Commanding.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, Numbers 142.
New Orleans, September 30, 1864.

No point on the Mississippi River in this department above the city of New Orleans is to be considered within the lines under General Orders, Numbers 51, headquarters Military Division of West Mississippi, unless troops are actually stationed at such point, and the lines for the purpose of trade under said order are defined to be within the pickets of such military command. All produce brought to the river except at actual military posts within the actual lines of practical military occupation will be considered as contraband of war, and so reported by the steamer or other craft that may receive them, for proceedings under General Orders, Numbers 51, aforesaid.

2. No steamer or other craft navigating the Mississippi River will be permitted to discharge passengers or merchandise at other than military posts without the permission in writing of the provost-marshal-general of the department, in cases where such passengers or merchandise are received on said boats or crafts at New Orleans, or of some general officer in actual command of troops at other points on the river. Such permits must be given with great caution.

By command of Major-General Hurlbut:

GEORGE B. DRAKE,

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEFENSES OF NEW ORLEANS,
New Orleans, September 30, 1864.

Lieutenant-Colonel CHRISTENSEN,

Asst. Adjt. General, Mil. Div. of West Mississippi:

A certain number of steamers of light draught have heretofore been set apart for the purpose of supplying the posts on the lake, lower Mississippi, and Fort Livingston. These boats having been placed under my quartermaster, were at hand for any contingency that might arise. I now have no quartermaster, and, of course, no boats under my control. But on applying the other day for a steam-boat for a particular purpose, I was led to infer from Colonel Holabird's answer that the boats are not sufficiently under his control to meet my requisition. To meet the wants of the service, I respectfully recommend that a small steamer of very light draught (say three feet) be sent into Barataria Bay to communicate with the city by the bayou. I would like one capable of carrying a gun, so that the sailing vessels sometimes seen going out to sea through the inlets in the vicinity of Fort Livingston may be followed up and examined; one steamer to ply between here and Forts Jackson and Saint Philip, two steamers on Lake Pontchartrain, one to supply the pots on the lake, and the other (very light) for keeping up an examination of the various bayous and picket stations all along the shore. I consider this last to be very essential to the efficiency of my pickets on the lake.