of documents relating to intercourse with the insurrectionary districts will clearly show that no cotton is permitted to come through the rebel lines unless the rebel Government is secured a direct interest, and it is susceptible of proof that cotton belonging to that Government and sent to Mobile for exportation has, in consequence of the effective blockade there, been returned to the Mississippi River, and is now trying to find an outlet there. It seems, therefore, reasonable, first to regard all attempts to export cotton from points on the river not under surveillance as violations of the blockade as direct as any attempts to export it from Mobile or any other sea-port, and, second, to hold all such cotton legally and properly subject to capture.

In connection with these remarks, I am instructed to call your attention to the fact that military operations have frequently been embarrassed by persons passing beyond our lines at different points, by authority from commanders of gun-boats. The inclosed copy of General Dana's letter of the 16th ultimo illustrates this fact; and we have now in custody several persons awaiting trail under the fifty-seventh Article of War, who procured passes from one military post to another and were landed from a gun-boat at Bayou Sara, where they proceeded to Woodville, with information of important military movements; in fact, scarcely any military operations have taken place during the past three months, without timely information thereof having been conveyed to the rebels through such agents. With a view of securing that harmony in the exercise of naval and military authority so desirable and necessary, the commanding general suggests that an order be issued to commanders of gun-boats, forbidding all boats navigating the Mississippi River, and all persons on such boats, to land at any point, except at military posts, or when under the direct observation and protection of gun-boats. Special cases, authorized by paragraph 9 of General Orders, No. 33, are excepted, but permits should in all cases be approved by both naval and military commanders of the respective districts where the landing is to take place.

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

C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Vicksburg, Miss., November 16, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

A. A. G., Hdqrs. Mil. Div. of West Miss., New Orleans, La.:

SIR: I think it proper to report to you of information reaching me of disloyal persons who fail to get passes from me to go without the lines of the District of Vicksburg, and of persons who do not apply to me, knowing they would refused, going occasionally to New Orleans and there procuring passes, on which they are transferred from steamers to gun-boats at mouth of Red River and at Bayou Sara, and from them are set ashore at their destination. Once landing, they can visit any part of the Confederacy behind my lines at pleasure. I am informed that a Mrs. White, who formerly kept a drug store in Vicksburg, whose house was a notorious resort and rendezvous of rebels and whose requests I have several times refused, visited Major General S. A. Hurlbut, commanding Department of the Gulf, at New Orleans, about 10th instant, and applied for a pass to land at Bayou Sara, for the purpose of going to Woodville to see her children. Woodville is within my district, and Fort Adams, also in my district, is its proper port. I had