General Garfield was ordered to the West by the War Department at his own request. If he was previously ordered to the Department of the South and you were not notified of the change it was an oversight of the Adjutant-General's Department.

Your want of good and instructed brigadier-generals is one very generally felt in the service, and nearly every general commanding an army has made the same request. Each one must take his proportion of the good and the poor. Your certainly have your share of the first class, and I can send you any number of the second class which you may require.

Generals Stevenson and Heckman are confirmed. In the order issued last summer assigning Pensacola to the Department of the Gulf it was intended to include Key West and the Torfugas, as going more accessible from New Orleans than Hilton Head, but they were omitted by an oversight. This will now be done.

Lieutenant McFarland should be immediately returned to Key West on being relieved from duty at Hilton Head. Another engineer officer will be sent to you from the Army of the Potomac.

No more heavy artillery can at present be furnished by the Ordnance Department for the forts in the South.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

ENGINEER DEPARTMENT,

Washington, March 16, 1863.

Major General D. HUNTER,

Commanding Department of the South, Hilton Head, S. C.:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 6th instant, stating that you had order Lieutenant W. McFarland, Corps of Engineers, from Key West to report to you Hilton Head.

Considering the great necessity which exist for the presence of Lieutenant McFarland with his duties at Key West, I have asked to have another officer of engineers sent to you for service in your operations, and I have to request that Lieutenant McFarland may be restored to his duties at Key West as soon as possible.

Very, &c.,

JOS. G. TOTTEN,

Brevet Brigadier-General and Colonel of Engineers.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, Numbers 24. Hilton Head, Port Royal, S. C., March 19, 1863.

I. All able-bodied negroes employed by the Engineer Department on permanent fortifications are exempted from the operation of General Orders, Numbers 17, current series, from these headquarters.

II. All plantation superintendents, tradesmen, sutlers, landholders, speculators, and others within the department are hereby cautioned against harboring, or keeping in their employed able-bodied male negroes liable to the draft. All negroes in private service, except those in the employed of commissioned officers, as provided for in General Orders, Numbers 17, will be immediately reported to Brigadier General Rufus Saxton, commanding United States forces, Port Royal Island, and none will be