find them. Hurlbut has no intelligence. Private advice confirm that Porter's gunboats are in the Yazoo, above Haynes' Bluff. Two commissary transports have been sunk in Yazoo Pass by snags. There is a rumor that the expedition is definitely abandoned, but I can get nothing official.

C. A. DANA.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

MEMPHIS, TENN., March 26, 1863-1 p. m.

A scout of Hurlbut's, who left Mobile March 17, reports extraordinary trains of sick arriving there from Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Jackson, and other posts of the Vicksburg army. The stations and towns along the way were also full of them. Stopping supplies from Opelousas has deprived that army of meat. I saw yesterday a Mr. Jordan, a very intelligent planter, who resides on Yazoo. He says that river is fortified, as the river is obstructed there by a raft as it is at Haynes'. The fact reported by Paymaster Judd, that boats from above Greenwood had got down into Steele's Bayou, he pronounces physically impossible. The Big Black he declares to be impracticable for boats of any size larger than skiffs, except at its mouth, where they may get in behind Grand Gulf, and he denies what others have asserted, that there is a draw in the railroad bridge back of Vicksburg. That bridge, he says, is protected by fortifications held by 20,000 men, so that the rebels regard its destruction as an impossibility. They think Vicksburg impregnable against any force but starvation.

Let me suggest that I should be much more useful farther down the river than here. At General Grant's headquarters I can get the truth. Here it is difficult and uncertain.

C. A. DANA.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

MEMPHIS, TENN., March 27, 1863-3. 30 p. m.

The news from Young's Point is to Monday, March 23. There is official information from Helena, but none has come here. The report is that Sherman has got twenty regiments landed of the east bank of Yazoo River above Haynes' Bluff, and that the greatest enthusiasm prevails throughout the army at this success. The report that he is supported by gunboats in Yazoo River is repeated. It is also stated that the channel from Deer Creek into the Sunflower had to be enlarged by digging in order to pass them, but all reports here on this subject are confused and doubtful. The Yazoo Pass expedition is not abandoned, but has received supplies and been re-enforced by Quinby's DIVISION. General Hurlbut's advice of March 17, from Mobile, report that five iron-clad rams are ready for use in the harbor, those built at Selma having been brought down.

C. A. DANA.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.