HDQRS. DETACHMENT SEVENTH ARMY CORPS,
Little Rock, Ark., April 8, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel S. M. MEEKER,

Commanding Sixty-second Illinois Infantry:

COLONEL: In consequence of information having been received here that a considerable force of rebels are near the Fort Smith road, about 20 miles above here, the general commanding directs that you send out at once under a proper officer a party of 15 or 20 men, the main part to be stationed on the road at the rebel fortifications and a part thrown forward three-fourths or 1 mile for observation.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. D. MASON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

WASHINGTON, D. C., April 8, 1864 - 1.40 p. m.

Major-General ROSECRANS,

Saint Louis, Mo.:

Order the Ninth Iowa Cavalry to proceed to Little Rock, Ark., to report to General Steele.

By command of Lieutenant-General Grant:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS SAINT LOUIS DISTRICT,
Saint Louis, April 8, 1864.

COMMANDING OFFICER,

Pilot Knob:

What do you think of the expediency of sending a company from Centerville to Patterson; also of sending the three howitzers now at Camp Curtis to Patterson? Ascertain and inform me whether it will be practicable, when grass comes, to subsist three companies at Poplar bluff or Doniphan, with the aid of such forage as can be gathered up about there.

THOMAS EWING, JR.,

Brigadier-General.

UNOFFICIAL.] HDQRS. DISTRICT OF CENTRAL MISSOURI,

Warrensburg, Mo., April 8, 1864.

Major General W. S. ROSECRANS,

Commanding Department of the Missouri, Saint Louis, Mo.:

GENERAL: Your letter by the hands of Mr. Joseph G. Atlee, of the firm of Tesch & Atlee, merchants at Sedalia, has been received. I desire to state fully all the facts in connection with this subject, so that it will be understood.

In June last I was assigned to this command. An unlimited traffic in liquors had been permitted, and large stocks were in the hands of wholesale dealers, while the towns, villages, and every central point, such as cross-roads, were filled with groggeries. There