[R. F.] Looney, or any other troops in WEST Tennessee, to tell them to cut this communication at some important point.

J. C. PEMBERTON.

PANOLA, April 18, 1863.

Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON:

A field battery will be of very great importance to me. I would like to have Hudson's battery, if possible. Colonel [R.] McCulloch has reported, with 330 men in his brigade.

JAMES R. CHALMERS.

JACKSON, April 18, 1863.

Brigadier-General CHALMERS, Panola:

I regard navigation of Mississippi River as shut out from us now. No more supplies can be gotten from Trans-Mississippi Department. Can you not keep 15,000 men supplied from Panola?

J. C. PEMBERTON.

OXFORD, MISS., April 18, 1863.

General CHALMERS:

Enemy advancing, going to meet them. They are reported [within] 2 miles of Hernando. Our pickets driven in.

W. C. FALKNER.

OFFICIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. STATE OF Mississippi, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 85. Jackson, April 18, 1863.

Brigadier General J. Z. GEORGE:

I. You will immediately proceed to Grenada, to which point funds have been forwarded, and have the men in your brigade paid, say to 1st of April, 1863.

II. You are authorized to raise as many companies of cavalry as will volunteer for twelve months from among the men of your command now in active service, and order them to rendezvous at such time and place as your may designate, within thirty days after their organization. You will encourage the volunteering of men not in active service, either in new companies or in those raised from State troops. You will authorize the raising of skeleton companies, and allow them to elect their officers. If they fail to fill the companies within thirty days after its first organization, they shall be consolidated into companies of not less than 64 men.