enth enrolled Missouri Militia Provisional Cavalry, and that while the Missouri State Militia troops are provided for and paid by the U. S. Government, the Enrolled Missouri Militia troops, which perform an equal amount of service, and equally hard service, and with whose services the Government cannot at present dispense, are not paid at all, and are poorly provided for, except in those articles which are furnished by the United States, viz, subsistence and camp and garrison equipage.

The State has paid most of the enlisted men of these regiments up to the 1st of October last, but many, and I think nearly all, the officers have not been paid at all, although having served, many of them, for some eighteen or twenty months, and the State has exhausted all its appropriations made in this behalf, and officers have not been paid and the men have no hope. Having been in the army, you know better than I could describe the condition that troops are in who are thus treated. It is impossible to keep up the morale of the troops; depredations are committed that would not be if the troops were paid or had the hope of pay. Their duties are not performed whit that alacrity and zeal that the exigencies of the service require; and in addition to all this we are kept in the constant fear that the troops will abandon all organization and go home; and what is worse, their homes having been destroyed by the enemy and their property exhausted in the service, themselves turn into the very bushwhackers and robbers that they have been destroying.

I have now reduced all the squadrons of the Enrolled Missouri Militia Cavalry in active service in my district to 50 men each, retiring those who had homes and were living at such places as would enable them to cultivate their farms. The troops of this class retained in service, as well as those retired, should be paid and provided for while in service, in the same manner as U. S. troops. The interest of the General Government as well as the State requires this, and this must be done or this class of troops retired and some regiments of volunteers sent here, or this section again overrun by guerrillas. Feeling that this matter demands the immediate and candid consideration of the officers of the State and of the General Government, I communicate the facts and condition to you. Peace and order have prevailed in the Missouri portion of the district for the past ten weeks.

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

JOHN B. SANDBORN,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHWEST MISSOURI, Springfield, February 27, 1864.

Brigadier-General THAYER,

Commanding District of the Frontier, Fort Smith:

I sent your telegram to Dr. Maynard, and he said he would communicate by telegraph with Fort Smith. I am anxious to learn the boundaries of the northern districts in Arkansas, that I may communicate with the commanders at an early day. Can you inform me whose district Yellville and Berryville and Burrowsville, in Searcy County, are in? These northern districts and my own are so connected that co-operation in all military movements is essential to success. I am informed that a large number of men, armed and up