and on the 3rd occupied Richmond, on the railroad opposite Vicksburg Yesterday he was to have occupied New Carthage, on the Louisiana side, below Warrenton. Steele's DIVISION has been through up to Greenville, on the Mississippi side, with the design of capturing a rebel force of one or two regiments in the country between that point and the Sunflower. No part of the Yazoo Pass expedition has arrived here, nor is there any information that the retreat is yet commenced.

C. A. DANA.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

MILLIKEN'S BEND, April 6, 1863-3 p. m.

VIA CAIRO, ILL., April 10-8. 40 p. m.

I arrived here to-day at noon. General Grant is very confident that Vicksburg will soon be taken, not only from the result of the operations now on foot, but also from the starvation of the garrison. He tells me that all supplies from his side of the river are already entirely cut off, and those from the Yazoo country are greatly diminished; that he expects them to be altogether stopped by the operations of Steele's DIVISION, whose movement to Greenville was mentioned in my dispatch from Helena yesterday. His advises from the town represent the people as already suffering much, and the garrison on reduced rations; that McClernand's corps occupied New Carthage yesterday, and that McPherson is about to move from Lake Providence to this place. The new cut-off is already half completed. Three thousand five hundred men are at work on it to-day, and Colonel G. G. Pride, the engineer in charge, says that he will be ready for it just as soon as the necessary tugs and barges can be got here from up the river. The length of navigation in this cut-off will be some 30 miles, and the plan is to take through it small tugs, with some FIFTY barges, enough to cross the whole army, with artillery and baggage, in twenty-four hours. The channel will only be wide enough for narrow crafts. The half dozen steamboats, protected by defenses of sand bags and wet hay, will be floated down the river past the batteries, to serve as transports of supplies after the crossing is effected; the landing to be made at or eastern shore of the Big Black, where the land is elevated and the roads good, threatening both the bridge across the Big Black and Jackson, the one point some 50 miles and the other some 75 miles from the place of debarkation. The enemy will be compelled to come out and fight. The wagon train left behind when the army left Memphis has now been ordered down for the purpose of this movement.

Of course this dispatch is hurried and incomplete as regards details, but I deemed it best to lose no time in sending it forward.

C. A. DANA.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

MILLIKEN'S BEND, April 8, 1863,

VIA MEMPHIS, TENN., April 11-5 p. m.

Everything is going on cheeringly. The canal from Duckport to the bayou will be ready by night to let in the water. A force equal to five regiments is now at work digging, while a strong body of pioneers are engaged clearing the bayou. From Richmond to the river it is already