HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Shreveport, La., May 17, 1864.

Major General S. PRICE,

Commanding District of Arkansas:

GENERAL: General Smith directs me to inform you that the enemy have evacuated Alexandria, and that Major-General Taylor reports that the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Army Corps will be sent up the river. He directs that Marmaduke be ordered, if practicable, to place his batteries, with a sufficient support, in position on the Mississippi River for the purpose of attacking the transports conveying the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Corps.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. R. BOGGS,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPT., No. 24. Shreveport, La., May 19, 1864.

I. The following officers are assigned to duty with the rank affixed to their names, subject to the approval of the President:

Brigadier General S. B. Maxey, Provisional Army, C. S., as major-general, to date from April 18, 1864.

Lieutenant S. D. Yancey, as captain, in the Adjutant-General's Department, to date from May 1, 1864.

Horace Cone, of Texas, as captain, in the Adjutant-General's Department, to date from May 1, 1864.

II. Lieutenant E. Cunningham, C. S. Army, is announced as chief of artillery for the Trans-Mississippi Department. Battery commanders will report to him, through their respective chiefs, the number and caliber of their guns and the strength of their batteries. If of field artillery, they will also report the number and condition of their horses and equipments.

By command of General E. Kirby Smith:

S. S. ANDERSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Shreveport, La., May 19, 1864.

Major General S. PRICE,

Commanding District of Arkansas:

GENERAL: I am directed by the general commanding to inform you that the enemy on Red River are retreating toward Simspost, and that so soon as the Red River Valley is free of them, the bulk of the forces will be moved into your district. I inclose herewith a copy* of a letter to Brigadier-Generals Churchill and Parsons. So much of that letter as relates to operations in the direction of Missouri was intended to be sent to you and not to Generals Churchill and Parsons. He proposes to made the Arkansas Valley and Missouri the theater of operations. Your staff should use every exertion to accumulate large depots and to getting all information

---------------

*See of May 16, pp.826, 827.

---------------