HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI,
New Orleans, La., November 18, 1864.

Major General N. J. T. DANA,

Commanding 16th Army Corps, Vicksburg, Miss., or Memphis, Tenn.:

SIR: I am directed by the major-general commanding to transmit, herewith inclosed, for your information, copies of the following dispatches* dated the 7th instant: (1) from the Adjutant-General of the Army; (2) from the Headquarters of the Army; (3) from Major-General Sherman. The necessary orders in relation to inclosure Numbers 1 will be issued in a few days. For the present your headquarters will be established at Memphis, and General Washburn may, if you have full confidence in his fitness, be assigned to the District of Vicksburg. All troops at garrisons which are not essentially necessary for military purposes will be drawn in, and the posts that are to be held will be strengthened and fortified, so as to withstand all attacks, while at the same time the garrisons should be reduced to the lowest possible number compatible with perfect safety. All surplus troops should be prepared for the field, and held in readiness to move wherever and wherever required. The cavalry should be made as effective as possible. The direction given by General Howard in relation to the operations against the enemy's railroads seems to be all that is required, and co-operative raids will be made from below as soon as the particulars of your plans are known. General Reynolds has been ordered to keep his troops on the Mississippi for the present, even after the emergency in Arkansas has passed, and he will not be ordered below until we know with certainty that your posts are not threatened by Beauregard. It is not unlikely that, if he were foiled in his plans against East Tennessee he might turn on the river and attack Memphis or some other of your posts. The general's health is steadily improving, and he is attending personally to all important business.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF ARKANSAS, &C., Numbers 78.
Little Rock, Ark., November 18, 1864.

The following orders from the War Department are published for the information and guidance of all concerned:

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 276.
Washington, October 24, 1864.

I. All officers and enlisted men of volunteers who are on recruiting service in the several States, except those detailed by orders from the Adjutant-General's Office will return to their respective commands by the 12th day of November, 1864. All who fail to present themselves at their proper posts on that day will be reported by their immediate commanders through the proper military channels to the Adjutant-General of the Army the officers for muster out of service, the enlisted men for arrest as deserters.

II. Hereafter no details for the volunteer recruiting service will be made except by the War Department.

By command of Lieutenant-General Grant:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

By order of Major General F. Steele:

W. D. GREEN,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

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*See pp. 463, 464.

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