up the river in considerable numbers, and will be available for service in Arkansas, but the emergency may be such as to require immediate action in keeping General Steele's communications open.

I am, general, your obedient servant,

JOHN F. S. GRAY,

Captain, Assistant Adjutant-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DETACH, 16TH AND 17TH A. C., Numbers 35.
On Steamer Clara Bell, May 21, 1864.

* * * * * * *

VI. Colonel E. H. Wolfe, Fifty-second Indiana Volunteers, having reported with his regiment at these headquarters as returned from veteran furlough, will assume command of the Third Brigade, Third Division, Sixteenth Army Corps, reporting to Brigadier General J. A. Mower for orders and instructions.

By order by Brigadier General A. J. Smith:

J. HOUGH,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. U. S. FORCES ON RIO GRANDE, Numbers 35.
Brownsville, Tex., May 21, 1864.

Notwithstanding the repeated orders which have been issued forbidding the seizure of property, except by competent authority and upon proper receipts given to the owner thereof, claims are continually being made for property taken in violation of these orders and without authority. Attention is called to General Orders, Numbers 288, War Department, series 1863, and to General Orders, Numbers 4, current series, from these headquarters, and all persons are distinctly notified that any future violation of these orders will cause the arrest and court-martial of the offender. Ignorance of orders will in future be no excuse for disobedience.

Any officer returning from scout or other duty, where the wants of the service and his instructions have made it necessary to take private property for the use of the Government, will without delay make report to the office of the assistant adjutant-general of all property seized by his command and the disposition made of it, and will be held rigidly accountable for the same until properly disposed of.

Commanding officers will be held responsible that these reports are properly and correctly made.

By command of Major-General Herron:

WM. H. CLAPP,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF ARKANSAS, &C., Little Rock, Ark., May 21, 1864.

Major General E. R. S. CANBY,

Commanding Military Division of West Mississippi:

GENERAL: No troops can be spared from this line at present with safety. Shelby's brigade, from 2,500 to 3,000, and four 10-pounder