SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. THIRD DIV., 16TH ARMY CORPS, Numbers 78.
Jefferson Barracks, September 30, 1864.

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X. Commanding officer First Brigade: You will hold your command in readiness to move at 7 a. m. to-morrow, October 1, 1864, taking with you all land transportation, camp and garrison equipage, and ammunition pertaining to the command, and five days' rations.

XI. Commanding officer Second Brigade: You will hold your command in readiness to move at 7 a. m. to-morrow, October 1, 1864, taking with you all land transportation, camp and garrison equipage, and ammunition pertaining to the command, and five days' rations.

XII. Commanding officer pioneer company, Third Division, Sixteenth Army Corps: You will hold your command in readiness to move at 7 a. m. to-morrow, October 1, 1864, taking with you all land transportation, camp and garrison equipage, and ammunition pertaining to the command, and five days' rations.

XIII. Captain R. R. Edwards, commissary of subsistence Third Division, Sixteenth Army Corps, will have his department in readiness to move at 7 a. m. to-morrow for Franklin, Mo., by land. In compliance with orders from headquarters Right Wing, Sixteenth Army Corps, this command is to be furnished with five days' rations, and in the event that the command is not now supplied with the above-named amount, Captain R. R. Edwards, commissary of subsistence, will prepare to issue this night.

By order of Colonel William T. Shaw:

JAMES B. COMSTOCK,
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

CAMP ARCHER,

Near Kirkwood, Mo., September 30, 1864.

Colonel J. V. DU BOIS,

Chief of Staff:

COLONEL: One of my scouts has just returned from the vicinity of Richwoods, and though his information is not very definite I infer from the character of it that Marmaduke, with the enemy's advance, had reached that vicinity, moving toward the Southwest Branch. Last night Price, it was said, was a good ways behind. I have a detachment of fifty men in that direction now, who left about 1 o'clock and will probably return about 10 o'clock to-morrow. Their information will doubtless be more definite, as the officer in command is instructed to get information accurately of any movement that may be going on toward the northwest. I have just learned from the down train that an officer on board the rain reported the rebels entering the town of Franklin when the train left there. I have the last in a hasty note from a reliable man in Kirkwood. Whether the officer who made the report is reliable or not I have no means of knowing, as I cannot even learn his name. A detachment is just now going in that direction which will give me reliable information before morning. You will doubtless be able to learn more definitely than myself in regard to the rumor. It will greatly facilitate my operations if the general will keep me informed of what he may know of the movement of the enemy. All that I have so far been able to ascertain positively is that no rebels are this side of Big River. The Meramec is fordable at any point now, and will con-