matter, and reciprocally on both sides of the Rio Grande they oblige themselves to execute and comply with it from this date, and continue the same until expressly advised that their acts in the premises are disapproved by their respective Governments.

ART. VII. Requisitions made on this city will be directed as before designated, but those necessarily made at other points on the line of the frontier will be exclusively made on the military commanders named by the respective generals, who will carefully instruct them previously, in conformity with this arrangement.

Done in the city of the heroic Matamoras, on the 19th day of December, 1864.

TOMAS MEJIA.

JAS. E. SLAUGHTER.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS,
Washington, January 14, 1865.

Brigadier General, W. R. BOGGS,

Chief of Staff:

GENERAL: Your letter of the 5th instant (5147) has been received. I had reorganized Shelby's and Cabell's brigades, and have ordered Shelby to Red River County, Tex., before your letter was received. As I have explained to you in my letter of the 11th instant, I expect to send Shelby north of the Arkansas River to bring the absentees from the army now scattered in that section of the country; consequently it is necessary for him to go to some point like Clarksville where supplies can be had, and he can have his horses shod, and make the necessary preparation for the anticipated expedition. In order to carry out your instructions to burn the cotton east of the Ouachita River, and further to obstruct the communication of the enemy via Arkansas River, from Pine Bluff to Mississippi River, which is now in daily use, and if a favorable opportunity should arise, to take possession of Pine Bluff, also to subsist the cavalry, I have ordered General Clark to establish his command in Union County, Ark., near the Louisiana line and in rear of Pigeon Hill, Ark. ; also Brooks' command I have stationed near the Arkansas River, with orders to obstruct, as much as possible, the navigation of the Arkansas River, between Little Rock and Fort Smith, which I deemed of great importance. In order to carry out my views in regard to Shelby's expedition north of Arkansas River, and to carry out your instructions, I deem it impracticable to send the cavalry to Dallas, Kaufman, and Van Zandt Counties, as they would then be 200 miles farther off from the points where I wish them to operate. General Shelby will not take over 1,500 cavalry with him on his expedition. All the rest not required for immediate use here can be sent to Titus county where, by the list submitted to me by the department commander, there appears to be 20,000 bushels of tithe corn and 38,000 bushels in Upshur County, the next county to it.

The counties of Van Zandt and Kaufman have only 14,000 bushels of corn; the county of Dallas has very little corn also. Instead of these, which are proposed by the department commander before he saw the list of counties with tithe corn, I respectfully request that should Shelby not be allowed to remain in Red River County, that he be subsisted in Titus and Upshur, except that portion which I propose to send north of Arkansas River. The enemy appears to be concentrating troops at Little Rock, a very small garrison being reported at Pine Bluff, and