II. Brigadier General M. K. Lawler, having reported at these headquarters for duty, is hereby assigned to command of the Third Brigade, First Division, Thirteenth Army Corps.

III. Sergt. S. Metzler, Sixteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, is hereby detailed for special duty, and will report to Captain

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, chief commissary of subsistence at Matagorda Island, immediately.

By command of Brigadier-General Warren:

B. WILSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

WASHINGTON, D. C., February 28, 1864-11.50 a. m.

Brigadier General J. W. DAVIDSON,

Cairo:

I know nothing of private difficulties between yourself and General Steele. You were applied for by General Stoneman several months ago to take charge of a Western cavalry depot. You were ordered to report from Cairo, because at that time it was proposed to move the depot from Saint Louis to some point in Illinois or Indiana. I have seen no published letter of General Steele.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI, Saint Louis, Mo., February 28, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,
Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: On the 12th of the present month the Rev. Bishop Ames presented at these headquarters a circular letter from War Department, dated November 30, 1863, copy of which is hereto annexed, marked A,* directing that--

All houses of worship belonging to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, in which a loyal minister appointed by a loyal bishop of said church does not now officiate, are placed at the disposal of the Right Rev. Bishop Ames--

and asked that an order be issued in conformity thereto. I immediately issued a circular to commanding officers of troops of the department (copy of which is herewith inclosed, marked B+), directing that "they furnish Bishop Ames every facility and assistance compatible with the interests of the service "under the order mentioned. Saturday, Mr. John Hogan called with a letter dated February 13, 1864 (copy inclosed, marked C*), bearing the official signature of James A. Hardie, assistant adjutant-general, directed to Major-General Rosecrans, commanding Department of the Missouri, with an indorsement in the handwriting and bearing the signature of the President of the United States, intended, as he (Hogan) claimed, to abrogate entirely in this State the circular order printed by Bishop Ames. As no official copy of the letter to me of the 13th February has been received at these headquarters, and as there is a doubt in my mind as to the policy the War Department intends to adopt as regards church property in this State, which the circular

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*Not found.

+See p. 311.

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