ment headquarters furnish the full account of the disposition of my troops, I inclose copies of the same for your information.* With the troops now with me I will march as rapidly as the impaired state of the stock will permit to Mill Creek. They are much exhausted, not one-half of them mounted, nor over a third armed. Their horses are, and will be for some time, entirely unfit for service. Most of the command and all the recruits look forward to serving as infantry, and a reorganization of nearly the whole command is necessary. As soon as practicable returns will be forwarded, to facilitate which I would be glad to have blanks forwarded to Fulton.

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

STERLING PRICE,

Major-General, Commanding.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,

Numbers 90.
Shreveport, La., November 25, 1864.

The assignment to, or volunteering in, cavalry commands of recruits within conscript age, and of boys under eighteen, except by special permission from these headquarters, being contrary to express orders upon the subject, must cease.

All who have thus volunteered or been assigned since August 31, 1864, will be immediately dismounted and assigned to some infantry command, and such of their horses as are suitable for artillery purposes will be appraised and turned over to the inspector of field transportation of the district. District commanders will be held responsible for the strict and immediate execution of this order.

By command of General E. Kirby Smith:

S. S. ANDERSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS,
Spring Hill, November 26, 1864.

Brigadier General W. R. BOGGS,

Chief of Staff:

GENERAL: I have the honor to request that the troops at Minden may be held in readiness to move at a moment's warning, until the plans of the enemy have been sufficiently developed to show whether he intends an advance or is now disposing his forces for the winter, and that information by telegraph from Camden to Shreveport if the enemy advance. Orders may be sent from there to Minden for the troops to march to my assistance. The latter I do not think can be the case, for he certainly would not place 3,000 cavalry at Fort Smith, in addition to the regular garrison there, and Curtis' forces, which have reached that point from Missouri, as it is, according to their own accounts, very difficult to provision the garrison alone. As I stated in my letter of the 24th, all the forces at the mouth of White River have been sent to Little Rock, via Devall's Bluff (including the re-enforcements lately brought up the Mississippi River). I am informed that it has not been very easy to place provisions at Little Rock, rendering it therefore impossible that it should be selected for winter quarters for

*Not found as inclosures.