field 2 lieutenants and 4 privates killed, and Major [B. B] Benson mortally wounded. The neighboring people report they had 40 or 50 killed and several wounded, including Richardson himself, whose wounds are dangerous. We lost Lieutenant Jesse B. Wilson and 7 privates killed and 35 wounded, many of them slightly, including 4 commissioned officers. Wilson fell very gallantly in the thick of the melee, fighting in his shirtsleeve as he had sprung from sleep. The rebels fled from their own camp at 2 o'clock in the morning. Loomis brought in 20 prisoners.

C. A. DANA.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

MEMPHIS, TENN., April 1, 1863-4 p. m.

On Saturday, the 28th, after the return of Sherman, Grant said confidentially that he had now tried unsuccessfully every conceivable indirect means of attacking Vicksburg, and that nothing but a direct assault upon the enemy's works remained. This is also the opinion of the general officers of his command. With regard to such an assault, the judgment of these officers is divided. Frank Blair is reported to me as favoring it, but I believe General Grant himself is opposed to it, as is Sherman, the most influential of all General Grant's subordinates, though I have no positive information on that point. I have no doubt that General Grant is about to move the bulk of his army back up the river. He is confident, however, that without taking Vicksburg he can, in co-operation with Admiral Farragut and General Banks, effectually cut off Confederate supplies from WEST of the river. Deserters from Vicksburg who arrived in General Grant's camp on Saturday report that food, excluding meat, is plenty in the town. There had been a deficiency, but now the supply is ample. A Mr. Walton-respectable gentleman, who arrived from Lower and Central Mississippi at General W. S. Smith's headquarters, LA Grange, yesterday-reports that supplies for Vicksburg are everywhere being seized. In Noxubee County 200,000 pounds of pork have just been taken. He also reports that there is not much Confederate force in Northern and Eastern Mississippi, but a great concentration against General Rosecrans, especially of cavalry. He says there are already 20,000 horsemen in Johnston's army, and every effort is being made to swell the number to 25,000, in order to make the defeat of General Rosecrans crushing in case he should have the worst in the approaching battle.

Dodge reports from Corinth to-day that the rebels are repairing all the bridges across the streams from Savannah east and Florence north. They are also building a large number of boats in the creeks leading into the Tennessee River, and have massed a body of cavalry at the mouth of Duck River. The same officer reported yesterday that Van Dorn's men had fallen back from Lawrenceburg to Lowryville, and that about 500 cavalry remained at Waynesborough. The men said they were going back to Mississippi.

From Yazoo Pass there is news of the renewal of fighting at Fort Pemberton, but nothing official or decisive on this subject. I shall doubtless be able to report fully from Helena, whither I go to-morrow. Your dispatch of the 30th received.

C. A. DANA.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.