Roy will carry artillery. The Iberville and Laurel Hill will remain for the ordnance and hospital service, respectively. The Meteor will continue in the upper Red River as a transport for troops for the present. You must be prepared for very heavy transportation of subsistence and ordnance stores from New Orleans to the upper Red River. Should a very large number of boats be taken an not wanted it will be easy to discharge them, but should they be required and not be ready at the moment the result would be disastrous.

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

CHAS. P. STONE,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, Grand Ecore, April 4, 1864.

Colonel E. G. BECKWITH,
Chief Commissary, New Orleans:

COLONEL: I hope you will receive from Lieutenant-Colonel Woodruff detailed information as to the condition and necessities of your department in the army, now in the field near Red River, but it can do no harm for me to give you my ideas. I think that General Smith's command will have to draw from our supplies on the 10th instant about 100,000 rations; that Franklin's command will draw, besides what he has in his trains, about 340,000 rations to supply him up to the 20th. This makes a sum total of 440,000 rations required. We have on boats here, 150,000; in Laurel Hill, coming up, 300,000; total, 450,000.

We are therefore all right up to the 20th instant, provided Steele requires nothing from us, but I take it for granted he will have to draw from us as soon as we reach Shreveport.

I shall therefore order up from Alexandria, to follow the fleet, the 100,000 rations taken from the Laurel Hill there to lighten her. This I suppose will supply Steele for about ten days. I should think from appearances that you ought to have on hand at Alexandria, ready for shipment up the river to us on the 10th instant, 450,000 rations, and be prepared to ship from New Orleans rapidly, immediately afterward, 800,000 rations. I make the last suggestion in view of the possibility of a movement which would require loading trains for a considerable absence from the river. This may be modified by exact returns, which you will, of course, receive from Lieutenant-Colonel Woodruff, but I think my estimates are safe.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHAS. P. STONE,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, Numbers 86.
New Orleans, La., April 4, 1864.

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2. The Twenty-fourth Indiana Veteran Volunteers, Lieutenant Colonel John F. Grill commanding, just returned from furlough, will be reported to Major General J. J. Reynolds, commanding Defenses of New Orleans, who will cause it to be fully armed and equipped for the