Vicksburg, February 23, 1863.

Lieutenant General J. C. PEMBERTON:

Aggregate present, my DIVISION, 6,053; sick, 868; effective present, 5,186. Do not advise a THIRD brigade to be formed out of it.

DABNEY H. MAURY.

JACKSON, February 24, 1863.

General JOSEPH E. Johnston, Chattanooga:

If General Chalmers' services are not indispensable in Bragg's department, he would be most useful in command of the northwestern district of this State.

J. C. PEMBERTON.

JACKSON, February 24, 1863.

Major General C. L. STEVENSON, Vicksburg, MISS.:

Indianola passed up by Rodney at 2. 30, doing her best. Nothing of Confederate fleet yet.

J. C. PEMBERTON.

JACKSON, February 24, 1863.

Brigadier General DANIEL RUGGLES,

Commanding, &c., Columbus, MISS.:

GENERAL: I inclose you a copy of special order from General Johnston's headquarters, assigning Major W. A. Hewlett's [Thirteenth Battalion Alabama Partisan Rangers] command to duty in this department. He will immediately report with his command to you for duty, and you will keep him on your advance line in the direction of Aberdeen.

By order of Lieutenant-General Pemberton:

J. R. WADDY,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

CAMP PEMBERTON, Yazoo River, MISS., February 24, 1863.

Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON,

Comdg.,&c., Jackson:

GENERAL: In accordance with instructions, with a view to obstructing the Tallahatchee and Coldwater, I proceeded up the Tallahatchee River, and had reached a point some 70 miles above this, where your dispatches of 18th and 21st were handed me to-day, too late, if it had been advisable, to order General Tilghman's brigade to Yazoo City. Hearing from various sources that the enemy had succeeded in effecting a passage to the Coldwater, I deemed it proper to return here and hasten the completion of the works at this point.

Upon my arrival here, I dispatched a courier to Grenada, with orders to General Tilghman to send without delay a strong regiment of infantry and a field battery to this place [the small boats being up the river, they could not be ordered here previously], and to order Colonel [R.] McCulloch with his cavalry [whom I had previously instructed to be in readiness] to the vicinity of the Coldwater, to operate against the enemy at such points as might be found practicable.