Grant would make that place his headquarters for some time. Mrs. Grant just arrived. McPherson's corps arrived at Vicksburg. Sherman arrived; brought two DIVISIONS; gone up river. A brigade to Natchez; four boat-loads of negroes to New Orleans. The destruction of railroads and wasting the country give me the impression that Grant's troops would be used in Virginia or Tennessee until the mild season.

J. E. Johnston.

RICHMOND, VA., August 2, 1863.

General JOSEPH E. Johnston, Morton:

Send Evans' brigade without delay to Savannah, Ga., retaining the artillery and horses for the present. *

By the President:

S. COOPER.

Adjutant and Inspector General

HDQRS. PAROLED PRISONERS, Demopolis, Ala., August 3, 1863.

Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON, Comdg. &c., Gainesville, Ala.:

GENERAL: Please inform me whether you gave any orders for the Arkansas troops to rendezvous on the other side of the river, or whether orders to that effect were given by the War Department.

There are only 15 or 20 men and no officers of the Arkansas regiment here.

I am, general, respectfully, your obedient servant,
C. L. STEVENSON.

MERIDIAN, MISS., August 4, 1863

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector GENERAL:

SIR: From a sense of duty I make to you this communication. I am personally known to the President, and am well known to the Honorable Wyndham Robertson, representative of the city of Richmond in the State Legislature, and I take the liberty of referring you to these gentlemen. I have been a close observer of the progress of things in Mississippi, and I am satisfied it is absolutely necessary that a new leaf be turned over in this department. As commissioner under the impressment law of Congress, I have felt it to be my duty to make diligent inquiry into the condition of things as to supplies for the army, and I feel warranted in the assertion that there has not existed a deficiency in the State. In the commissary department there has been a great want of foresight and energy. The troops at Port Hudson and Vicksburg should never have been reduced to short rations. These strongholds, by proper management, could have easily been provisioned for six or twelve months. The truth of this statement can be satisfactorily established should it be questioned, and whilst the commissary department has been thus inefficient, its agents have been multiplied to an unnecessary extent, and this is also true somewhat, I think, of the quartermaster's department. The great number of able-bodied men connected with these departments has attracted general notice, and to correct this abuse stringent measures must be adopted. Mere general orders will accomplish

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*So ordered, August 3.

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