HDQRS. DISTRICT OF NORTHEASTERN ARKANSAS, Batesville, Ark., April 16, 1864.

Captain E. . D MASON,
A. A. G., 7th A. C. and Dept. of Ark., Little Rock, Ark.:

SIR: In reply to your communication of the 9th instant, I have the honor to state that my force consists of Eleventh Regiment Missouri Cavalry, eleven squadrons, 780 men and officers; First Regiment Nebraska Cavalry, 601 officers and men; Arkansas mounted infantry, 369 officers and men; section Battery D, Second Missouri Artillery, 36 officers and men; giving an aggregate of 1,750 mounted men and 36 artillerists. Owing to causes to me unknown sufficient forage has not been sent from Devall's Bluff, and my stock of horses is reduced to 600, the balance of the cavalry being dismounted.

Jacksonport is 28 miles east of Batesville; the road for 16 miles west from Jacksonport to this station is through a miserable bottom, the balance is over sharp hills. My command is indifferently supplied with ammunition, though requisitions and letter urging it sent have been forwarded by the proper officers. No forage can be obtained in this region under General Orders, Numbers 31, from these headquarters, copy of which has ben forwarded to your office. Twenty-one hundred families have reported to the chief quartermaster of this district, giving exact amounts of forage on hand, the number of acres planted in corn, oats, and wheat, number whites and blacks in family, &c., and the result is destitution.

My scouting parties are numerous and always out; report the same in corroboration of the sworn statements of the citizens, and in view of the fact that my stock is dying daily for want of food, and that I have been compelled for the last four days to press food for my command, and knowing that this portion of the river from here to Jacksonport is not navigable during eleven-twelfths of the year, I have considered it a military necessity, in view of my situation, to remove to Jacksonport, where boats with supplies can reach me, leaving 530 men to hold this post. This will give me 1,200 men with which to occupy to country east of Black and Wite Rivers. There is nothing for me to do west of above line. I have exterminated and driven out nearly all the scoundrels who infested the country north of Little Red to Missouri, and as the enemy is growing impudent along the east bank of White River, menacing my line of supplies, and as they are more numerous on that side, I have determined, under all the circumstances, that my duty to my men and horses and my country required my presence on that side of this district, where I hope soon to do such good work as will substantiate the correctness of my judgment.

I will send 600 men to Augusta, to be there 25th instant, when, if the lieutenant commanding will co-operate with me by sending a force, we will camped the enemy to remove his headquarters to the interior swamps west of ridge. I do not believe the reports of 2,000 of the enemy being with McRae; he has about 1,200 soldiers, 200 of whom he has to keep out scouting for subsistence. He could raise 2,000 armed men by pressing citizens, but that will only make the slaughter worse for him. My men will fight, rest assured of that, and I predict that McRae's glory departs from him as soon as I set foot on the other side of the river.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. R. LIVINGSTON,

Colonel First Regiment Nebraska Cavalry, Commanding