done it does not appear that there will be vacancies for all the officers recommended. The President has, therefore, nominated only three of the officers recommended by you, viz, Cols. J. E. Harrison and W. P. Hardeman, and Lieutenant Colonel W. P. Lane, to be brigadier-generals. No other can be appointed until it appears that there are vacancies in properly organized brigades. In this connection the President instructs me to say that it is improper for you to announce the promotion of general officers and assign them to duty before they are appointed by him. Any recommendations you may make will be duly and promptly considered, but action here must take place before they can be promoted and assigned to duty. In the designation of commands the course adopted in all the armies east of the Mississippi is recommended to you, viz, to give to the command the name of the general commanding. This is in many respects preferable to the numerical designation. In making recommendations you are requested to state the former position or command and the services of the officer recommended.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. COOPER.

Adjutant and Inspector General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE. Numbers 304.
Richmond, Va., December 23, 1864.

* * * *

XXXII. Paragraph XLVI, Special Orders, Numbers 177 and XXII, Special Orders, Numbers 179, Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, current series, assigning Brigadier General F. T. Nicholls, Provisional Army, C. S., to the organization and superintendence of the Bureau of Conscription in the Trans-Mississippi Department, were intended to relieve Brigadier General E. Greer from conscription service in that department. Brigadier-General Nicholls, will, therefore, assume the duties of the chief of that bureau in that department.

By command of the Secretary of War:

JNO. WITHERS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION.
TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT.

Numbers 29.
Marshall, Tex., December 23, 1864.

By direction of the commanding general of the department, enrolling officers are required to arrest and send back to their commands all stragglers and furloughed men belonging to the army of Major-General Price.

By command of Brigadier-General Greer:

W. STEDMAN,

Assistant Adjutant-General

[DECEMBER 24, 1864. - For Davis to Smith, relative to crossing the Mississippi with troops, &c., see Part I, p. 123.]