CAPE GIRARDEAU, February 21, 1864.

General FISK:

I have sent out scouts from Bloomfield to guard ferry and fords. They cannot well reach Dallas without Leeper's knowing it. I will notify Montgomery soon as possible. We shall be glad if they will honor us by calling. We will go through them like a dose of salts.

J. B. ROGERS,

Colonel, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS SAINT LOUIS DISTRICT, Saint Louis, February 21, 1864.

Colonel R. G. WOODSON,
Pilot Knob:

Intelligence from below indicates that we may expect an early movement on some one of our outposts by the combined guerrilla hordes in Northeast Arkansas. Let prompt and thorough preparations be made to move every available man. Every outpost must be vigilant and constantly on the alert. How many men can you concentrate for a quick march by Pocahontas?

CLINTON B. FISK,

Brigadier-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF CENTRAL MISSOURI, Warrensburg, Mo., February 21, 1864.

Major O. D. GREENE,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Saint Louis, Mo.:

MAJOR: I have the honor to respectfully suggest, for the consideration of the commanding general, the situation of the Pacific Railroad Company, its importance as an influential mode of adjusting road Company, its importance as an influential mode of adjusting the border difficulties and resetting the devastated country, and the difficulties that will embarrass the company in their effort to build it from this post to Kansas City. By a recent act of the General Assembly of the State of Missouri the company has been placed in a situation whereby the money can be procured to complete the western portion of the road from Dresden to Kansas City. The road-bed has been nearly completed to his place, so that it can be put in order for running by the 1st to the 15th of May next. I am advised that the iron has been purchased and is being delivered for the line sufficient to lay the track 10 miles beyond this post toward Kansas City, and that the iron for the entire line will be purchased immediately, together with the chairs and spikes. The cross-ties will be delivered by the time the road-bed can be got ready for laying the iron.

With this road completed, and an interchange of business and social relations established between Missouri and Kansas through its agency and through that of the road from Kansas City to the west which is rapidly progressing toward completion, the border difficulties would be settled, the country through which the road passes would be repopulated by an immigration of law-abiding citizens, and the further use of troops would soon become unnecessary, as the influence of the acts of peace would be sufficiently powerful to control the bad men of the country with a very little assistance from the military power. Until thins change can be effected at least two