HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES,
Morganza, La., December 9, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Asst. Adjt. General, Mil. Div. of West Miss., New Orleans, La.:

SIR: I have the honor to report the arrival of the following-named regiments at this place last night from the mouth of White River: Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry Volunteers; One hundred and fourteenth Ohio Infantry Volunteers, and Eighty-third Ohio Infantry Volunteers. In pursuance of Special Orders, Numbers 205, paragraph 9, dated headquarters Military Division of West Mississippi, New Orleans, December 5, 1864, the last-named regiment was at once dispatched to Natchez, Miss.

I have the honor to remain, your most obedient servant,

DANIEL ULLMANN,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES,
Natchez, Miss., December 9, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

SIR: Thomas Rodgers and James Mitchell, privates in Captain Williams' company, Powers' rebel regiment, deserted that command on the 7th (Wednesday) and reported to me this morning. Powers with 600 men was then fifteen miles this side of Brookhaven, and was going via that point to Monticello, on Pearl River. They say that Mississippi troops numbering 15,000 are gathering at Monticello to meet our force in that vicinity. They say that a private of Wood's regiment who had been home on furlough reported to Captain Williams in their hearing, on the 7th that he saw Lieutenant Earl buried at Union Church (thirty-five miles from here) after being taken away from Fayette. I have no reason to doubt this statement. A young woman who was in Fayette when Lieutenant Earl was wounded came in and informed me that when Earl dashed into Fayette with less than thirty men, four companies of rebels ran away, supposing him to have a larger force; that they returned the next day and carried him off, as she supposed, to Jackson. She says the inhabitants, especially the women, remonstrated against his removal and offered to take care of him, and that Doctor Duncan, at whose house he was and who kindly attended him, protested that to remove him would cause his death, and that his murder would rest upon them, but that they swore they would carry him to Jackson "dead or alive." The result justifies my apprehensions. Lieutenant Earl was a brave and chivalrous officer. He was a terror to the enemy and had by his successes awakened deep hostility. I have heard of their threats to destroy him. I did not suppose they would wish or dare to kill him by violence, but was too well satisfied that they would treat him so as to make him die. I did not know of his misfortune until his men had returned, leaving him in the enemy's hands, and then had no cavalry or I should have attempted his recovery. He will be sorely missed in the peculiar service in which he was fast becoming distinguished.

Yours, &c.,

M. BRAYMAN,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.