haus suggests that a cavalry force moving down from Haynes' Bluff to Messinger's Ford will cut off any rebel on this side the Big Black.

Your obedient servant,

JOHN A. McClernand.

NEAR Vicksburg, MISS., June 9, 1863.

Major General John A. McClernand.

Commanding Thirteenth Army Corps:

There is a DIVISION of troops at Haynes' Bluff, under command of Major-General Washburn. He has been directed to send out a sufficient force in the direction of the Macon Ford, to cut off the enemy or drive him beyond the Big Black; also to open up communication with General Osterhaus.

The SECOND Illinois Cavalry is ordered to report, as you request.

By order of Major General U. S. GRANT:

[JNO. A. RAWLINS,]

Assistant Adjutant-General

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. Fifteenth ARMY CORPS Numbers 44.
Walnut Hills, MISS., June 9, 1863.

To prevent communication between the enemy, now closely invested in Vicksburg, and their friends and adherents without, the following rules must be observed on the north front:

A continuous chain of sentinels must extend from the Mississippi River to the main Jackson road, along our front trenches. These sentinels will act as sharpshooters or pickets, and must be posted daily, and be instructed that no human being must pass into or out of Vicksburg, unless on strictly military duty, or as prisoners.

These sentinels must connect, one with another, the whole line; but DIVISION commanders may prescribe the posts, so that the length of line for each sentinel will depend on its nature.

All the ground, no matter how seemingly impracticable, must be watched.

The reserves and reliefs will be brigades or DIVISIONS, according to the nature of the ground; but the post of his reserve must be known to each sentinel, and be within call.

I. General Steele will be held responsible for the front, from the Mississippi, to the valley now occupied by General Thayer, to be known as "Abbott's Valley. "

II. General Tuttle, from Abbott's Valley to the Graveyard road, at the point near the head of our "sap," to be known as "Washington Knoll. "

III. General Blair, from Washington Knoll to where he connects with General McPherson's troops, at or near the point now occupied by General Ransom's advanced rifle-pits, to be known as "Ransom's Hill. "

IV. The battalion of regulars, commanded by Captain Smith, will keep guards along all the roads leading to the front, and will arrest all soldiers absent from their regiments without proper authority, and turn back all officers not provided with written orders or passes from the commanders of their brigades or DIVISIONS.

Soldiers or citizens (not regular sutlers within the proper limits of their regiments) found peddling will be put under guard, and set to