necessary force be detailed from your command without necessary delay and furnished with the tools required to hut themselves. The spot for the station should be selected with a view to the proximity of wood and water, and the building placed where it will not be commanded by mounds or liable to annoyance from timber or thickets, and it should be constructed with due regard to defensive capabilities in any contingency. A discreet officer should be placed in command of the party with full instructions, and the detachment should be properly supplied with rations for a month or more in advance, and be fully armed and equipped with a good store of ammunition. You will please furnish a copy of this dispatch to Major Rose, commanding Fort Wadsworth, that he may be made aware of the orders given for keeping open winter communication with his post.

By command of Brigadier-General Sibley:

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

R. C. OLIN,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS FORT WADSWORTH, DAK. TERR.,
November 3, 1864.

Captain R. C. OLIN,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Saint Paul, Minn.:

CAPTAIN: My scouts yesterday afternoon killed two Indians, one of Little Six's, the other of Red Leg's bands.

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

ROBT. H. ROSE,

Major Second Minnesota Cavalry, Commanding Post.

WASHINGTON, November 4, 1864-12.30 p.m.

Lieutenant-General GRANT,

City Point, Va.:

I think from present appearances that Price's affair will be over in the course of the next ten days, and that Reynolds' troops can then be withdrawn from Arkansas. Steele's effective force is now about 20,000. Sherman thinks that a movement from the Mississippi River toward Selma, cutting the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, by which Beauregard's army is now supplied, will be more advantageous to him than any operations on the coast. If you are of same opinion, General Canby's instructions should be to that effect. For the present, I think all of Canby's efforts should be directed to prevent Kirby Smith from sending the intended re-enforcements across the river to assist Beauregard and Hood against Thomas.

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General and Chief of Staff.

HEADQUARTERS DEFENSE OF NEW ORLEANS,
New Orleans, November 4, 1864.

Major DRAKE,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Department of the Gulf:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of a letter of Lieutenant Jackson, signal corps, to Major-General Canby, relative to rebel organizations forming at Springfield, La., as conveyed in a report