Missouri is not in the slightest danger of an invasion this winter, I therefore respectfully suggest that now the commanding officer has been changed, 5,000 men from that department can be sent to General Thomas at Nashville. In case of any real difficulty in Missouri they can readily be returned. As General Rawlins (your chief of staff) has recently visited Saint Louis, I submit the matter for your consideration.

H. W. HALLECK,

Major- General and Chief of Staff.

HDQRS. RESERVE ARMY CORPS, MIL. DIV., OF WEST MISS.,
New Orleans, La., December 8, 1864.

Captain BENJAMIN NIELDS,

Chief of Artillery, &c.:

The major- general commanding directs that you proceed with as little delay as possible to Morganza, La., to supervise the preparations and movement of the First Delaware Battery Light Artillery to the Department of Arkansas, as provided in paragraph 4, Special Orders, Numbers 205, current series, headquarters Miliary Division of West Mississippi, and from thence you will proceed to Devall's Bluff, Ark, and await the arrival of the general at that point.

By command of Major- General Reynolds:

JOHN LEVERING,

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

[DECEMBER 8, 1864- For Andrews to Graves, reporting return of expedition to Augusta, &c., see Part I, p. 983.]

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTH KANSAS,
Paola, Kans., December 8, 1864.

Brigadier General J. M. THAYER,

Commanding District of the Frontier, Department of Arkansas;

GENERAL: I have learned unofficially that the command under Colonel C. R. Jennison, Fifteenth Kansas Volunteers, on their return from the Arkansas River, after the abandonment of the pursuit of Price, committed many acts of vandalism on their march through Washington and Benton Counties, Ark. This outrageous conduct of Colonel Jennison and a portion of his command (for if what I have heard is true it can be characterized in no other terms) was wholly unauthorized by superior officers and is very much deprecated.i inclose you official copy of instruction* to him when he left me at the Arkansas River. He was sent in that direction to meet supply train that was following in my rear,and it was expected that he would proceed to Fort Scott with as little delay as possible without interrupting any one in the country through which he passed except armed parties of the enemy. I am causing an investigation into the conduct of Colonel Jennison in Northwestern Arkansas, with a view of meting out just punishment to the guilty parties, and to further the object I desire that you shall take measures to ascertain all the facts you can in relation to the affair mentioned

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*Not found as an inclosure.

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