HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, August 5, 1865. (Received 1 a. m. 7th.)

Lieutenant-General GRANT,

Commanding Armies of the United States:

GENERAL: I am now very well satisfied that the removal of the French and Austrian troops from Matamoras was caused by the fear that the city might be captured, and the French Government did not wish the complications which would arise.

Very respectfully, Your obedient servant,

P. H. SHERIDAN,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, August 5, 1865. (Received 1. 40 a. m. 7th.)

General J. A. RAWLINS,

Chief of Staff:

I directed the railroad from Brazos in the direction of Boca Chica to the Rio Grande, at White's Ranch, to be built when I first came to this command. This involved only the expense of cross-ties, as we have everything else. The contract for these ties has been disapproved on the strength of an order obtained from the Secretary of War for the continuance of this road to Brownsville from White's Ranch. The short road from Brazos for which these ties were gotten out and delivered long ago is so necessary that it seems like a want of reflection or a suggestion on the part of some old man who was in the Mexican war, when we got along without it. The sooner these people die off the better it will be for the public economy.

Very respectfully, Your obedient servant,

P. H. SHERIDAN,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, August 5, 1865.

Colonel R. M. SAWYER,

Asst. Adjt. General, Military Division of the Mississippi:

COLONEL: I have the honor to report that the volunteer organizations sent to the plains from the East and from the Army of the Tennessee are in such a state of insubordination, and many of their officers are so much in sympathy with them, that they are next to useless for any service, and have by their example infected the other troops now there to the extent of making them nearly inefficient. Of course they all have one cause of complaint, in which their officers fully sympathize with them, viz: "That with the end of the rebellion their terms of service expired, and that they are entitled to be discharged from the service. " Whether wrong or right, they are so fully possessed of this feeling as to be nearly useless. I am compelled to keep some of them for the present, until the Indian expeditions return, about October 1, when the whole force in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Montana, and that portion of Dakota lying west and south of the Missouri River will be reduced to an aggregate of five infantry and two cavalry regiments, as I have already informed You. The only troops in good discipline are the regiments of U. S. Volunteers which must be retained so long as possible. I submit these facts for consideration at this time because I am satisfied that when the time comes to