will remain at his present post until to-morrow morning, when General Smith will give him orders to report to Colonel Cockrell.

L. M. MONTGOMERY,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Aide-de-Camp.

HDQRS. DEPT. MISS. AND E. La., Vicksburg, June 28, 1863. Major General MARTIN L. SMITH,
Commanding, &c.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to inform you, by direction of the lieutenant-general commanding, that Major [J. K.] McDowell's command is relieved from duty in the trenches on General Shoup's line of position, and that it and any of Colonel Cockrell's command, placed in rear of said line, will always be regarded as a reserve command, and only put in the trenches an emergency demands it, and subject to withdrawal from near of said line under any pressing demands elsewhere.

It is strictly a reserve.

L. M. MONTGOMERY,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Aide-de-Camp.

SIGNAL CORPS, SMITH'S DIVISION, Post, June 28, 1863.

General MARTIN L. SMITH:

[Intercepted dispatch.]

General GRANT:

A vessel will start for Port Hudson in four or five days. Will let you know in time. Two deserters in. They say the town will be surrendered on the 4th day of July, after the rebels fire a salute. Six days' one-fourth rations left yesterday.

PORTER.

MAX. T. DAVIDSON,

Captain, Commanding.

Appeal for help. *

IN TRENCHES, near Vicksburg, June 28, 1863.

General J. C. PEMBERTON:

SIR: In accordance with my own feelings, and that of my fellow soldiers with whom I have conferred, I submit to your serious consideration the following note:

We as an army have as much confidence in you as a commanding general as we perhaps ought to have. We believe you have displayed as much generalship as any other man could have done under similar circumstances. We give you great credit for the stern patriotism you have evinced in the defense of Vicksburg during a protracted and un paralleled siege.

I also feel proud of the gallant conduct of the soldiers under your command in repulsing the enemy at every assault, and bearing with patient endurance all the privations and hardships incident to a siege of forty odd days' duration.

Everybody admits that we have all covered ourselves in glory, but alas! alas! general, a crisis has arrived in the midst of our siege.

Our rations have been cut down to one biscuit and a small bit of bacon per day, not enough scarcely to keep soul and body together, much less to stand the hardships we are called upon to stand.

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* Found among General Pemberton's papers.

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