general efficiency. It is believed that no present increase of that force is needed.

Respectfully s. BRICE,

Acting Paymaster-General U. S. Army.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE DIRECTOR AND General MGR. MIL. RAILROADS U. S.,

Washington, November 1, 1864.

A. ANDERSON, Esq.:

SIR: You are hereby appointed chief superintendent and engineer military railroads United States. You duties will be of a general character.

You are authorized to give instructions in regard to all matters properly within the sphere of duties belonging to director and general manager military railroads United States, and said instructions and all order given by you in the name of the general manager will be obeyed and respected as if emanating from that officer.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

D. C. McCALLUM,

Bvt. Brigadier General, and General Manager Mil. Railroads U. S.

NOVEMBER 1, 1864-5.02 p. m.

(Received 8.30 p. m.)

His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

President of the United States, Washington, D. C.:

On the 28th of October Secretary of War ordered General Rosecrans to furlough until November 10 the following troops, to enable them to vote: The Forty-ninth, One hundred and seventeenth, One hundred and nineteenth, and Fifty-eighth Regiments Illinois Volunteers, and same time authorize General Thomas, Nashville, Tenn., and Brevet Major-General Burbridge, Louisville, Ky., and General Washburn or commanding general at Memphis, Tenn., to furlough until November 10 next, and send home any troops that could be spared from their commands between that date, October 28 and November 5. On the 30th of October I received telegraphic notice from T. M. Vincent, assistant adjutant-general, that the order to Rosecrans had been revoked because the Forty-ninth. One hundred and seventeenth, One hundred and nineteenth, and Fifty- eight Regiments were with General Smith, on the Kansas border, in pursuit of Price. I have now ascertained that the regiments last designated are not in pursuit of Price, but ordered with General Smith's command to re-enforce General Thomas at Nashville, against Beauregard, who is reported to have crossed the Tennessee River at Florence. Now, this threatened advance of Beauregard will probably deter Thomas and Burbridge from sending a single regiment home, and the order to send Smith's division, embracing said Illinois regiments, is likely, if executed, to prevent us from having any regiments home to vote. I ask in all candor whether it is not better to allow the Forty-ninth, One hundred and seventeenth, One hundred and fourteenth, and One hundred and nineteenth Regiments, now moving back here, to stoop in Illinois to