HEADQUARTERS SUB-DISTRICT OF CHILLICOTHE,
Chillicothe, Mo., December 18, 1864.

General CLINTON B. FISK, Macon, Mo.:

GENERAL: Your dispatch of last evening with the glorious news from Nashville came duty to hand. I turned the boys loose and we had a regular jollification. All passed of nicely. I sent the news northward this morning. My gratitude to the God of Sabaoth for recent successes has no bounds. He who holds our destinies in His hands will ultimately bring our country through this ordeal. Lord hasten the day!

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. H. SHANKLIN,

Colonel, Commanding.

QUINCY, ILL., December 18, 1864.

Brigadier General C. B. FISK,

Macon:

We are here in the streets, and mud ankle deep and freezing. No prospect for a move.

E. A. KUTZNER.

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, December 19, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

In compliance with your instructions, indorsed on letter of Honorable R. C. Schenck, of December 13, asking what has been done under the act approved March 3, 1864, entitled "An act to provide for the protection of overland emigration to the States, and Territories of the Pacific," I have the honor to report as follows:

The act approved March 3, 1864, provides that -

For the protection of emigrants by the overland route to the States and Territories of the Pacific, the sum of forty thousand dollars be, and the same, is hereby, appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriate, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War: Provided, That ten thousand dollars of said appropriation shall be applied to the protection of emigrants on the route from Fort Abercrombie by Fort Benton, and the further sum of ten thousand dollars of said appropriation shall be applied to the protection of emigrants on the route from Niobrara, on the Missouri River, by the valley of the Niobrara and Gallatin, in Idaho.

Instructions were given May 5 to Captain Le Roy Crawford, assistant quartermaster of volunteers, to organize a party as an escort to emigrants along the route from Omaha City and the Platte Valley to the Pacific coast. Captain Crawford reports October 1 that the expedition arrived the previous day at Boise City, Idaho Terr., where he expected to dispose of his outfit and then to return to Washington. A detailed report of his journey has not been received.

Captain James L. Fisk, assistant quartermaster of volunteers, was charged with the escort contemplated by the proviso to the act along the route from Fort Abercrombie by Fort Benton. On the 31st of October Captain Fisk reported from Yankton, Dak., the result of his "endeavor to cross the country from Fort Rice, on the Missouri, to the Big Horn and Upper Yellowstone region." While passing the Red