HEADQUARTERS DEFENSES OF NEW ORLEANS,

New Orleans, December 27, 1864.

COMMANDING OFFICER,

Bonnet Carre:

I am instructed by Brigadier-General Sherman to direct you to remove the field pieces from the landing place on the river and place them on the upper side of your defenses so as to command the land approaches to your camp, and also to at once, if you have not already done so, supply these pieces with all the necessary implements and a supply of ammunition. You will have the necessary number of officers and men set apart, so far as you may be able, to man and serve these guns effectually at all times.

I am, sir, respectfully,

FREDERICK SPEED,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF ARKANSAS, Numbers 318.
Little Rock, Ark., December 27, 1864.

I. Brigadier General A. Shaler, U. S. Volunteers, having reported for duty at these headquarters, will assume command of the Second Division, Seventh Army Corps, and the troops serving at Devall's Bluff, Ark., relieving Brigadier General C. C. Andrews, U. S. Volunteers. General Andrews, on being relieved, will obey paragraph 2 of Special Orders, Numbers 205, current series, from headquarters Military Division of West Mississippi.

* * * * * *

By order of Major General J. J. Reynolds:

W. D. GREEN,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE FRONTIER,

Fort smith, Ark., December 27, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel W. D. GREEN,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Department of Arkansas:

I shall be able to get off in the boats now here a large number of citizens, soldiers, families, and refugees, but there will be more than a thousand remaining who ought not to be left to suffer from guerrillas and actual starvation, which they must endure unless provided for. The First and Second Arkansas Infantry Regiments were raised in the counties in Western and Northwestern Arkansas. Their families are in a state of destitution, and humanity demands that everything possible should be done to send them where they can be provided for or provide for themselves. Many of these people can provide some kind of transportation barely sufficient to get them to Little Rock, but by far the greater number are solely dependent on the Government for aid. I can therefore but urge upon you to send back as many boats as possible to aid in getting these people away, and I feel confident that boats can get up here and return to Little Rock before the river gets too low for navigation, for when loaded as they would be by people, when the boats arrived at the bad bars the passengers could be put on shore and walk a mile or two and be again taken on.

Respectfully,

JOHN M. THAYER,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.