the military post of Fort Smith. This department, for further convenience, is divided into districts, as follows:

First. District of the Frontier, embracing all that portion of the department south of Kansas, commanded by Major General James G. Blunt, U. S. Volunteers.

Second. District of South Kansas, comprising that part of the State of Kansas lying south of the Kansas River and its tributary, the Smoky Hill Fork, commanded by Brigadier General Thomas J. McKean, U. S. Volunteers.

Third. District of North Kansas, including that part of the State north of the Kansas River and Smoky Hill Fork, commanded by Brigadier General Thomas A. Davies, U. S. Volunteers.

Fourth. District of Nebraska Territory, commanded by Brigadier General R. B. Mitchell, U. S. Volunteers.

Fifth. District of Colorado Territory, commanded by Brigadier General Thomas Ewing, jr., U. S. Volunteers.

The districts thus designated are for the convenience of police regulations, but commanders in the field will not hesitate to cross lines and co-operate with adjacent commands, when the interests of the department seem to require. Generally, reports should be made through district headquarters, but commanders of posts and expeditions in the field may, at their discretion, report important matters to these headquarters.

By command of Major-General Curtis:

JOHN WILLAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[FEBRUARY 29, 1864.-For Sherman to Halleck, referring to operations on the Red River, see Vol. XXXII, Part II, p. 498.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, New Orleans, February 29, 1864.

Colonel E. L. MOLINEUX,
Thibodeaux:

COLONEL: Give all information to commanding officers of troops and trains which will facilitate their movements. Have the cut-off road examined, and if practicable have repairs made promptly, to give us the advantage of the double line of communication.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHAS. P. STONE,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI, Numbers 34.
Saint Louis, Mo., February 29, 1864.

I. The major-general commanding is pained to learn that prosecutions in the name of the civil law are contemplated, and some suits have actually been commenced, against soldiers, or late soldiers and officers, for alleged illegal acts said to have been committed by them while in the military service, and that the active agents in these prosecutions are men distinguished for their sympathies with the rebellion, or, at best, for their want of sympathy with the Union cause. That those who so late were willing to see both the Constitution and the laws stricken down by the hand of armed rebellion should now be