are now guarding the lake and the parishes above and below the city with such detachments. Varner's battalion is also composed of similar detachments, which are returned as regiments arrive. This battalion has been very useful in furnishing guards for steamer-boats, &c.

Two companies of the Veteran Reserve Corps are now on duty in the city, giving us the First U. S. Infantry in hand for any emergency. General McClernand is here with the advance of his troops (in all about 1,500 bayonets). Not an hour will be lost in getting to the front all available force. I think now the Twenty-fourth Indiana, returned veterans, present at Battalion Ruge, had better go forward, and the companies of the First Indiana Heavy Artillery just arriving at Baton Rouge remain there. Will see further on this point to-day. The arming of the artillery as infantry would cause delay. Guerrilla parties have made some demonstration in La Fourche District, but nothing serious has occurred. Colonel Day is in immediate command of the district, and reports for hi received this morning are satisfactory. The One hundred and thirty-third New York, Colonel Currie, were expected to sail yesterday for the front. The colored regiment for Pensacola passed down day before yesterday. We are repairing the parapet at Carrollton. The wishes of the general commanding department with regard to quarantine and sanitary measures generally will be rigidly carried out. The One hundred and thirty-third New York could not leave until the colored regiment from Port Hudson has arrived.

I am, very respectfully, &c.,

J. J. REYNOLDS,

Major-General, Commanding Defenses of New Orleans.

HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES,
Port Hudson, La., April 22, 1864.

Major GEORGE B. DRAKE,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

SIR: I have the honor to report that in pursuance of Field Orders, Numbers 22, paragraph 20, dated headquarters Department of the Gulf, April 17, 1864, the Twentieth Regiment U. S. Infantry (colored) embarked yesterday for Pass Cavallo, Tex. I desire to call the attention of the commanding general to the recent large reduction of this garrison. The accompanying schedule* shows the present effective force of the infantry. The Seventy-fifth and Sixty-seventh, from Missouri, are raw recruits; and the Seventy-ninth, Eighty-third, Eighty-eighth, and Eighty-ninth have been depleted to fill up other regiments. The cavalry, you will observe, have a number not armed or mounted.

In the opinion of General Andrews, who left this morning for the North, the outer lines of works cannot be held with the present force. I am therefore withdrawing from the exterior line, removing artillery, &c., and making arrangements to hold only the interior work. Two of the three batteries can easily be spared. I should prefer the Twelfth Massachusetts to remain. In pursuance to an order dated headquarters Department of the Gulf, in the

---------------

*Not found.

---------------