SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS,
HDQRS. ARMY OF THE OHIO, No. 83.
Near Atlanta, Ga., August 15, 1864.

I. The Second Ohio Heavy Artillery will be transferred to the District of East Tennessee, and the First Ohio Heavy Artillery will take its place in the District of the Etowah.

* * * * * *

By command of Major-General Schofield:

J. A. CAMPBELL,

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

[39.]

HELENA, ARK., August 15, 1864.

Major C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Asst. Adjt. General, Military Division of West Mississippi:

I am informed that when Major-General Slocum was assigned to the command of the Twentieth Corps, Major-General Sherman telegraphed to Major-General Washburn, commanding the District of Memphis to extend his command over the other districts on the Mississippi lying within the Military Division of the Mississippi, and I have just seen an article in a newspaper announcing that General Washburn had assumed such command. As Major-General Washburn is my junior and has not, under the law, been assigned by the President to the command of an army or department in which I have been ordered to report for duty. I cannot, of course, receive any orders from him or consider myself in any way under his command. Fearing that the major-general commanding the Military Division of West Mississippi, under whose command I am serving, has not been informed of the above state of things, I hasten to report it, soliciting specific instructions as to my status at Vicksburg, and asking that I may be protected from any misfortunes which may arise from from misunderstandings on the part of my military superiors, or from attempts on the part of inferiors, by instructions from superios, to exercise a comman over me unauthorized by law and which, consequently, it could not be expected I could consent to. I have now completed my work here and shall leave by the first boat for Vicksburg.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

N. J. T. DANA,

Major-General.

[First indorsement.]

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI, New Orleans, August 20, 1864.

Respectfully transmitted to the Adjutant-General of the Army for the decision of the War Department.

Major-General Dana was assigned to the command of the District of Vicksburg by order from these headquarters in accordance with instructions received from the Headquarters of the Army.

ED. R. S. CANBY,
Major-General, commanding.

[Second indorsement.] ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, September 9, 1864.

Respectfully referred to Major-General Hallekc, cheif of staff,

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.