Captain Murphy, suspected of being an incendiary and boat-burner was in Mobile; is believed to be now in New Orleans. He is forty-five or fifty years of age, five feet seven inches high, rather portly, with full face, blue eyes, iron-gray hair gray side whiskers, no mustache; is said to have caused the conflagration of steamers in New Orleans in June, 1864. A regular carrier between Mobile and New Orleans is one Richardson, twenty-one years of age, five feet seven inches high, slender, with light complexion, brown hair, gray eyes, and with right arm gone above the elbow.

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

FRANK W. MARSTON,

Major and Chief Signal Officer, Mil. Div. Of West Mississippi.

SPECIAL ORDER,
HDQRS. MIL. DIV. OF WEST MISSISSIPPI, Numbers 221.
New Orleans, La., December 22, 1864.

1. Major John Levering, assistant adjutant-general, U. S. Volunteers, is hereby relieved from duty at headquarters of the Reserve Corps of the Military Division of West Mississippi, and will report for duty with Major General J. J. Reynolds, commanding the Department of Arkansas, at Little Rock, Ark. The quartermaster's department will furnish transportation for the private horses (not exceeding the limit allowed by law) of Major-General Reynolds and of such officers of his staff as are authorized to accompany him from this city to Little Rock, Ark.

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3. The Twelfth Illinois Cavalry, now at Greenville, La., is hereby relieved from the special duty for which it was assigned by Special Orders, Numbers 189, paragraph 1, current series, from these headquarters, and will be sent, as soon as transportation can be furnished, to Morganza, La. The commanding general Department of the Gulf is charged with the execution of this order.

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By order of Major General E. R. S. Canby:

C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

NEAR EAST PASCAGOULA, MISS.,

December 22, 1864.

Lieutenant-Colonel CHRISTENSEN,

Assistant Adjutant-General, &c.:

COLONEL: I have just received your dispatch of the 16th and 19th and proceed at once to call on General Bailey to offer him all the assistance in my power to hurry the cavalry back to New Orleans. The low tides and fog have embarrassed us beyond measure, but we are again at work and will push things to the utmost. I returned from the front last night. We are getting along there as well as might be expected, although our best efforts and extreme patience have been required to keep our troops supplied with rations and forage, all our transportation being required by the cavalry. There seems to be great delay in the passage of the boats to and from New Orleans, and, besides this, General Bailey informs me that he is entirely out of forage. I have heard to-day, unofficially, that our troops captured Blakely with 300