gather together at your post for use in the proposed examination of Bayou Boeuf and the network of bayous in that vicinity. Lieutenant Mayers, acting assistant quartermaster at Brashear, will send these boats and skiffs to Bayou Boeuf Station by steamer Cornie. The commanding officer at Terre Bonne, on being notified by Colonel Harris that these boats are ready, will send a sufficient number of men, in charge of a commissioned officer taken from the force at Bayou Boeuf, to Brashear City to take charge of boats while in transit to Bayou Boeuf. You will report the number of boats and the time when forwarded.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

B. B. CAMPBELL,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS NORTHERN DIVISION OF LOUISIANA,
Baton Rouge, La., February 21, 1865.

Lieutenant Colonel GEORGE B. DRAKE,

Asst. Adjt. General, Department of the Gulf, New Orleans:

COLONEL: Inclosed I hand you memorandum of information furnished me by one of my scouts, which I forward for the information of the major-general commanding the department.

Very respectfully, yours,

F. J. HERRON,

Major-General.

[Inclosure.]

KIRKSVILLE, February 16, 1865.

The entire number of men stationed from Jackson, Miss., around Baton Rouge to the mouth of the Amite River is 2,000, scattered in squads of from twenty-five to fifty men. Colonel Scott, Colonel Gober, and Colonel Powers have their men from Clinton and Greensburg down to the Amite River. Colonel Amacker has 150 men at Osyka, and scattered around the bridges of Tickfaw River. General Forrest, in supreme command, is at Jackson with one regiment. Colonel Griffith has two regiments at Monticello, Covington, and Madisonville. Five regiments would offer but little opposition, as the men are conscripts from their homes and the woods. General Forrest has not a single piece of artillery in his entire command, and most of the men have no cartridges. If all the cartridges in the command were equally divided there would not be more than two for each man. There are in all ten regiments, and their average is not above 150 men each. The other 500 men are stationed between Rodney, on the river, and Jackson. If you go from Baton Rouge to Clinton be careful and look out when you reach Olive Branch, eighteen miles from Baton Rouge, and about one mile on the right-hand side of the road. Again, on the Greenwell Springs road, after you cross Sandy Creek bridge, right opposite the old blacksmith shop, on the left-hand side of the road in the woods; here there is a reserve. The first picket is at Bradford's, the second one on the cross-road which leads up to Mr. Lee's is the third picket. On the other side of the Amite River from Henry Womack's up to Williams' Bridge, is under command of Colonel Gober. If you go from Clinton to Lib-