amounts more nearly to annihilation than the other roads which the rebels have destroyed. The ties are all burned, and the iron bent, broken, and carried off; the locomotives are broken up by sledge hammers, and the passenger and burden cars are burned. The buildings at Lavaca are still standing, and it is not known that those on the line of the road and at Victoria have been destroyed.

I have the honor to remain, with much respect,

N. J. T. DANA,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS,
Pass Cavallo, Tex., March 7, 1864.

Major General N. P. BANKS,

Commanding Department of the Gulf:

I have the honor to reply to your communication of the 20th ultimo, marked "Confidential." I have very little recent information in regard to the works at San Antonio. I do not believe the rally goes via Eagle Pass and Brownsville. I do not believe the works there are important to the rebel Government in Western Texas. Prior to about the 1st of January there were no works there. About that time negroes were set to work to fortify the place, and I notified you of the fact from Brownsville. From the information I have received I believe field-works are constructed, but not formidable ones. I do not think the rebels would make extensive works there or rely much on them, as, from the nature of the country, the place can readily be avoided or turned.

I have had 4 rebel officers, deserters, within the pat month, none of whom could give me much information regarding anything west of Victoria. I have now a captain of engineers, a German, who was sent out by Magruder to reconnoiter roads, fords, and ferries, but he has only heard that some field-works were erected at San Antonio. This captain (Dietz) will be sent to General Brown by the first steamer. Colonel Ford commands in the vicinity of San Antonio, with the light troops of Benavides and Weyman in his front on the Rio Grande near Laredo and Eagle Pass.

I have the honor to remain, with much respect,

N. J. T. DANA,

Major-General.

LITTLE ROCK, ARK., March 7, 1864.

Major General W. T. SHERMAN:

DEAR SHERMAN: I have been wishing to write you for some time, but you fly about so that I cannot keep track of you. The newspapers make you omnipresent almost. The last accounts by telegraph from the North makes you on your way to join Grant at Huntsville, Ala. You have swallowed several rebel armies whole and been annihilated several times yourself. However, our conjectures have all been put at rest by a bearer of dispatches from General Banks, who has just arrived, and who is now waiting for this note. I answered your note in which you spoke of the death of poor old Duke. If you come up into this department, I think I can replace him. There are still some fine horses here, and I have a finer steed than ever. I have not yet from the young officer in whose behalf