HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE,
Memphis, Tenn., August 26, 1864.

Major General W. S. ROSECRANS,

Commanding Department of Missouri, Saint Louis:

GENERAL: I have an order from General Canby to send you the Seventh Kansas Cavalry. They are now below Oxford with Major-General Smith, but as soon as they return I will send them if you still need them, of which I wish you would advise me, as otherwise I should like to keep them.

I am, general, your obedient servant,

C. C. WASHBURN,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS FIRST SUB-DISTRICT,
Saint Louis, Mo., August 26, 1864.

Lieutenant H. HANNAHS,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General:

In accordance with instructions contained in circular from district headquarters dated August 6, 1864, I have the honor to report that I have no positive evidence of the presence of the enemy in any force within the limits of my sub-district during the past month, yet there are matters of daily occurrence which lead me to believe that disloyal persons are numerous in the First Sub-District. Over thirty horses have been stolen within the last two weeks in the western and northern portions of Saint Louis County, among them twelve Government horses. Many circumstances connected with the stealing of these horses have led citizens to believe it to be mainly the work of guerrillas. My attention has been called to frequent meetings of men of known disloyal sentiments near Creve Coeur Lake in the northern part of Saint Louis County.

On the

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instant I ordered Captain Bulkley, Company E, Second Missouri Cavalry, to make a descent on one of these meetings, with a view of ascertaining the true character of the meeting. By Captain Bulkley's report it appears that the party was fully informed of the proposed military visit and were on their guard, so that nothing could be found in any manner criminating them as disloyal; they had previously assembled with arms; on that day they were not armed. Measures have been taken to watch their future proceedings with great vigilance. Union citizens of established loyalty in that locality are fully convinced that these meetings have been held for purposes hostile to the Government. I am fully satisfied that guerrillas and thieves have frequently passed over from the State of Illinois to Jefferson, Washington, and adjacent counties, near Selma, Iowa, on the Union River, and have perpetrated outrages from time to time in the above-mentioned counties. I desire, as soon as the forces at my disposal will permit, to establish a small post at or near Selma, Iowa, with a view of preventing these periodical marauding incursions from Illinois.

That the city of Saint Louis is filled with men notoriously disloyal to the Government and having arms in their possession is no longer a matter of doubt in my mind; men who cannot live at their homes in various portions of the State because of their known disloyalty; others hitherto members of military organizations in the South, but formerly from this State, and whose term of service has expired; others again, perhaps, under secret orders from Confederate authorities; vagrants--