HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., March 22, 1865.

Brigadier General H. PRINCE,

Commanding Camp of Reception, Blair's Landing:

GENERAL: I am instructed by the major-general commanding to state that transportation is now arriving from the North for your troops. You are directed to have the troops in readiness to embark at once. The vessels being of large draft, will go up the river as high as possible, and you will have to embark your troops with the aid of the steamer now in your charge.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. L. M. BURGER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., March 22, 1865.

Brigadier General JOHN P. HATCH,

Commanding Northern District, Dept. of the South, Charleston, S. C.:

GENERAL: The major-general commanding has placed the following indorsement upon your letter of the 15th instant, requesting instructions concerning the disposal of the cotton and other property which you have seized in the city of Charleston and its vicinity:

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., March 22, 1865.

General Hatch's course with regard to the cotton found in Charleston is approved. All cotton will be taken possession of and held for further orders from these headquarters. Instructions with regard to other property about which there is any doubt, whether it be captured, abandoned, or confiscable, will be sent to General Hatch in a few days. Property which, beyond doubt, is either captured or abandoned will be turned over to the Treasury agents, except what may be required for military purposes.

Q. A. GILLMORE,

Major-General, Commanding.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. L. M. BURGER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

SAVANNAH, March 22, 1865.

His Excellency EDWIN STANTON,

Secretary of War:

HONORABLE SIR: I feel it my duty, as the head of the Catholic Church in Savannah, to inform you of the proceedings ordered by the military authorities against the Catholic cemetery of this city, to give expression to what I deem a legitimate complaint, and to enter a solemn protest in the name of the Catholic community.

Fortifications are now being erected upon the Catholic cemetery. A few days ago I received a communication, written by order of General Gillmore, informing me that he (the general) would make a personal inspection of the locality, and wished me to accompany him to the cemetery. On hearing of the arrival of the general in Savannah I did all I could to find him out, but in vain; and the day after his visit I learned, altogether accidentally, that 300 men were to be the next day on the graveyard to proceed to the work of disinterring the dead and erecting fortifications on their tombs. I thus had no chance to apply to Your Excellency at least for a suspension of the work.