PART IV-VOL XXXIV.

CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI STATES AND TERRITORIES, FROM MAY 23, 1864, TO JUNE 30, 1864.*

UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.#

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DIV., OF WEST MISSISSIPPI, Numbers 3.
Natchez, Miss., May 23, 1864.

The headquarters offices of the division will be established for the present at Natchez, Miss., to which place all official communications intended for the division commander will be sent. The staff at division headquarters will be announced hereafter, but reports, returns, &c., will be addressed impersonally to the "adjutant-general," chief quartermaster," chief commissary," &c., in order that they may, without delay, reach the office for which they are intended. In addition to the customary returns and reports prescribed by regulations, and which will be transmitted through the usual channels, the following official papers will be sent direct to the headquarters of the division.

1. A field return of the troops on the 1st, 11th, and 21st of each month, giving all the information required, in the prescribed form. This return will be sent direct from every command that is so far removed from the main body to which it is attached that it cannot be included in the return of that command on the day for which it is due.

2. A copy of each general or special order issued at the headquarters of departments, army corps, districts, or other separate commands by the first opportunity after the date of its issue. As far as practicable, the files of these orders, from the commencement of the year, will be made complete.

3. Reports or information specially called for by the chief of any department. In other cases they will be sent through the ordinary channels.

4. Reports conveying important military information in regard to our own or to the enemy's forces, duplicates being sent at the same time to the department, corps, or district commander.

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*Including Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Indian Territory, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Texas, and the Department of the Northwest, embracing Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

#For Union and Confederate Correspondence from January 1, 1864, to March 31, 1864, see Part II, and from April 1 to May 22, 1864, see Part III.

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