HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF CENTRAL MISSOURI,
Jefferson City, January 21, 1864.

SAMUEL RUCKER, Esq.,

Pleasant Hill, Cass County, Mo.:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 17th instant. I thank you for the information in relation to the state of affairs at Pleasant Hill. The company that is mustered in and armed will be relieved from active duty and permitted to retain their arms for self-protection as soon as the changes in the position of the troops is made. Say to the parties of whom you write who have felt it necessary from motives of policy to sign the petition to which you refer, that the embarrassment under which they labor is fully understood, and that they have nothing to apprehended from me in consequence of being compelled to make an ostensible effort to remain under present military organization.

I wish you, as well as other of your friends, would keep me fully advised of the situation of affairs, and I hope by your assistance to bring about a better state of affairs on the border. You have probably learned that I have asked the General Assembly to pass a law prohibiting the stock from running at large. The object of this is to enable the farmers to till their lands without the necessity of fencing out the stock. Parties with a working team can thus raise sufficient to subsist them. If they have to build fences it cannot be done.

Let me know if my views are correct. With a hearty co-operation on the part of the people, I hope that you will witness the end of your terrible afflictions.

E. B. BROWN,

Brigadier-General of Volunteers, Commanding.

SPRINGFIELD, MO., January 1, 1864

Major O. D. GREENE,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Saint Louis, Mo.:

It is respectfully suggested that the economy and good of the service would be promoted by having two well disciplined and drilled companies of infantry assigned to this district and post for provost guard, and to garrison Fort Numbers 1, when Major Rabb's men of the Second Missouri Artillery leave, which will be required before long, unless this force is to receive its outfit here; using two squadrons of cavalry for this duty seems to involve an unnecessary expense.

JOHN B. SANBORN,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

SPRINGFIELD, MO., January 21, 1864

Major O. D. GREENE,

Assistant Adjutant-General.:

Colonel Phelps, commanding Second Arkansas Cavalry, dispatches from Berryville on the 18th instant that Gunning with 400 men was 40 miles south of there, Captain Human, with the First Battalion Eighth Missouri State Militia, approaching them from the east through Yellville, and Captain Galloway from the west, through Huntsville, with a battalion, and Colonel Phelps from the north.