so divided as to invite attack. A strong force must be retained at the depots of public stores.

Send this forward, for the benefit of officers commanding posts or pickets along the line. Orders from Brigadier-General Blunt will be forwarded.

SAML. R. CURTIS,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE NORTHWEST,
Madison, Wis., December 9, 1862.

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

Washington, D. C.:

General Sibley reports that combinations, embracing thousands in all parts of Minnesota, are forming to get the condemned Indians in their possession. I ask that the action of the President may be kept secret until we can concentrate the troops, to prevent a collision, if possible.

W. L. ELLIOTT,

Brigadier-General U. S. Volunteers, Commanding.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

Washington, December 10, 1862.

Major-General CURTIS, Saint Louis, Mo.:

Please suspend, until further order, all proceedings on the order made by General Schofield, on the 28th day of August last, for assessing and collecting form secessionists and Southern sympathizers the sum of $500,000, &c., and in the mean time make out and send me a statement of facts pertinent to the question, with your opinion upon it.

ADDENDA.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF MISSOURI, Numbers 91.
Saint Louis, August 28, 1862.

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III. The following-named gentlemen are hereby appointed a county board for Saint Louis County, viz: Messrs. Henry Moore, John Cavender, G. F. Filley, Charles Borg, and Ferdinand Meyer. This board will assess and collect, without unnecessary delay, the sum of $500,000 from the secessionists and Southern sympathizers in Saint Louis County. The money thus obtained will be used in subsisting, clothing, and arming the enrolled militia while in active service, and in providing for the support of such families of militiamen and U. S. volunteers as may be left destitute.

* * * * *

By order of Brigadier-General Schofield:

C. W. MARSH,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. 2nd AND 3rd DIVISION, ARMY OF THE FRONTIER,

Camp Prairie Grove, December 10, 1862.

Major-General CURTIS, Saint Louis, Mo.:

One of my spies, who came to the battle-field with Hindman's troops and retreated with them to Dripping Spring, has just come in. He