HEADQUARTERS,
Wilmington, December 31, 1862.

General BEAUREGARD, Commanding:

MY DEAR GENERAL: I send you this note by your able brigadier, General Gist, of South Carolina. He brings you a sketch of the lines, which were arranged to defend Wilmington. We are trying to increase the efficiency of the lines.

I beg you will receive my true and real thanks for the promptness with which you sent you magnificent troops to my assistance at a time when it was thought they were needed.

Though I have been stationed here in a separate command, I regret always that the orders which had been given to me to report to you were not insisted on, for as I commenced this war under you, so I should like to end it, as far as I am concerned.

Very truly, yours,

W. H. C. WHITING,

Brigadier-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. PROV. FORCES, DIST. OF E. FLA., Numbers 1543.
Lake City, December 31, 1862.

I. Captain Dickinson, commanding company Second Florida Cavalry, will select a lieutenant and 20 men, with proper non-commissioned officers, and three or four days' rations for his men and of forage for his horses, and proceed as secretly and expeditiously as possible across the Saint John's River to the vicinity of Saint Augustine.

II. Captain Dickinson may assume the command of the expedition, or place the lieutenant in command, and remain himself at Palatka, as may in his judgment be best for the public service.

III. Having arrived at Saint Augustine, or its vicinity, the commanding officer will lay in wain, his troops well concealed, and capture if possible any men of the enemy or wagons going into or coming out of Saint Augustine, and do whatever may be in his power to prevent communication between the people in the country and the enemy in Saint Augustine.

IV. The officer commanding the expedition will return, if practicable to Mr. Christopher's, on the King's Ferry road, and there supply himself with provisions and forage, and communicate with Captain Dickison or the officer commanding at Palatka, and, if prudent, return to the vicinity of Saint Augustine and make another effort to capture some of the enemy and the wagons that may be entering or coming from the town.

V. A report will be made to these headquarters of the expedition, and any prisoners captured will be sent here. The utmost vigilance to prevent surprise or loss of men is enjoined on the officer commanding the expedition.

By order of Brigadier-General Finegan:

W. CALL,
Assistant Adjutant-General.