at Panola. All captured horses, as well as those impressed, will also be sent to the quartermaster at Panola, who will be instructed, after receipting for the former and receiving and playing for the latter, to turn them over to brigade commanders, who will issue them to soldiers having no horses.

VI. Further instructions will be given about captured property, which will give those making the capture the benefits, by law, arising from it.

VII. These instructions will be read to the command.

By order of Brigadier-General Chalmers:

W. H. CARROLL, Jr.,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

MONTGOMERY, May 16, 1863.

General S. COOPER:

A part, if not the whole, of General Forrest's command ought to be sent immediately to Northern Mississippi. It is impossible to communicate with General Johnston, and I respectfully make the suggestion.

BENJ. S. EWELL,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Indorsement.]

Seen by the President. General Johnston was telegraphed to this effect April 7, 1863.

CALHOUN STATION,

Seven miles south of Canton, May [16], 1863.

General [S. R.] GIST, C. S. Army:

I have just received your letters of yesterday.

Major Mims, the chief quartermaster of the department, was instructed yesterday morning to provide transportation for the arriving troops. He reports twenty-five or thirty wagons at Meridian or Enterprise; the horses are on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, at points above. They have been ordered to Meridian by railroad.

You can give immediate orders for the bringing to you the number of wagons and teams you require, and, on receiving them, march with the troops that may have gathered at Forest Station to join me. Time now, you will readily perceive, is important.

If you can procure horses by purchase or impressment in the neighborhood, mount forty or FIFTY infantry to serve as vedettes. If, while waiting for transportation, you [believe] that a change of your position toward Jackson would expedite your movement in this direction, please make it.

On setting out to join us, leave for the officer who may command the troops arriving afterward, instructions to prepare transportation for the troops he may have and expect, and await orders for march in this direction, but in the meantime to look to the defenses of Meridian against the enemy's raids. In the meantime communicate with me freely.

Most respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. E. Johnston.

P. S. -If the necessary number of wagons can be procured by impressment in the neighborhood, take that mode, which will enable you to come much sooner.