HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF CENTRAL MISSOURI, Warrensburg, Mo., February 23, 1864.

Colonel JAMES H. FORD,
Commanding Fourth Sub-District:

COLONEL: By direction of the general commanding I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 18th instant, and to state that at present no infantry can be spared you. Your attention is specially directed to the first paragraph of a communication written you by the commanding general, dated 14th instant, and the necessity of constant activity on the part of your command in the vicinity of the head waters of the Blues, Fire Creek, and the Snibar Hills, is again urged upon you, as by this means alone can the enemy be prevented from concentrating and making a sudden and perhaps successful movement into Kansas.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES H. STEGER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF KANSAS, Numbers 8.
Fort Leavenworth, February 23, 1864.

I. Major General James G. Blunt, U. S. Volunteers, is hereby directed to resume command of so much of the District of the Frontier as is included within the boundaries of the Department of Kansas.

II. The following circular from the Provost-Marshal-General's Office is republished for the information and guidance of all concerned:

CIRCULAR,
WAR DEPARTMENT, PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 99.
Washington, November 4, 1863.

I. Special agents employed in accordance with paragraph 12 of the regulations for the government of the Provost-Marshal-General's Bureau will not hereafter be paid the reward of $30 for the apprehension and delivery of deserters unless they elect to relinquish their monthly pay and receive in future only the reward.

II. All deserters arrested must be delivered to the provost-marshal of the district in which the arrest is made, in order that the necessary investigation may be had and proper action taken. No rewards for arrest of deserters will be paid unless the person arrested is so delivered and the fact of delivery certified to by the provost-marshal who receive him.

JAMES B. FRY,

Provost-Marshal-General.

III. In order to a better understanding of the rules which govern in the arrest of deserters, the following extract from a letter written by direction of the General-in-Chief is published, and especial attention to its terms required:

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, September 19, 1863.

* * * * * *

The notification from the Provost-Marshal-General that a person is a deserter must be taken by the department commander as prima facie evidence that the man is a deserter and to be sent to his regiment for trial accordingly. The notification of the provost-marshals of the enrollment districts that the person whom they deliver for safe-keeping and to be returned to his regiment is a deserter must be taken as proper evidence that the man is to be so held and returned, without question as to the propriety of the charges, unless in a manifest case of wrong, which should be brought to the notice of this Department. Deserters arrested in other