SPECIAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 76.
Washington, February 16, 1864.

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36. Brigadier General T. A. Davies, U. S. Volunteers, is hereby relieved from duty in the Department of the Missouri, and will report in person, without delay, to Major-General Curtis, U. S. Volunteers, commanding Department of Kansas, for assignment to duty.

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By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,

Saint Louis, Mo., February 16, 1864.

General SANBORN,

Springfield, Mo.:

Your action with regard to mail robbers meets the general commanding's entire approval. No intention of reprimanding [you] with regard to the mail robberies, as it was well known they occurred outside of your command. So soon as the battalion of Eleventh Missouri Cavalry arrives at Rolla the men you telegraph about will be arrested and returned to you. Rese assured the officers shall not escape if the sergeant told the exact truth about the rescue. Please bring him before you, and make him testify on oath with regard to the occurrence, and send me substance by telegraph. What do you think now of the officers of the Eleventh Missouri Cavalry? Do you not think the action of the general commanding in the Scarlett case was too severe? In a official indorsement of yours, now before me, you speak of the steady and great improvement in the discipline of the battalion since its being under your command., I am sure of that part of it, but what, in God's name, must it have been before you got of it, if this rescue occurrence be a fair sample of its discipline now?

O. D. GREENE,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo., February 16, 1864.

Major O. D. GREENE,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Saint Louis, Mo.:

I respectfully request that the commanding officers of posts in the Rolla District be directed to detail no escort of less than 15 men to escort mail or trains. Men of my command who have escorted stages and trains into that district are sometimes sent back in squads of 5 as an escort to the stage. Such was the escort when the stage was attacked, a few days since, near Waynesville, and 1 of the 5 was killed and 3 wounded and the mail captured.

JOHN B. SANBORN,

Brigadier-General.