May 3, 1864, Saint Louis, Mo.,
Assistant Adjutant-General O. D. Greene to Major E. T. Ensign

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, May 3, 1864.

 Maj. E. T. ENSIGN,
Ninth Iowa Cavalry:

MAJOR: You will proceed with the two companies under your command, by the steam-boat furnished for the purpose and now at the levee, to Hannibal, Mo., at which point you will disembark your command under cover of night, and leave the vicinity of the town with the utmost secrecy and dispatch. You will take especial pains to prevent the members of your command from becoming known. You will take the road to Palmyra, and move to the immediate vicinity of that point. You will establish your headquarters, report your position by telegraph to General Fisk, commanding the district, under whose immediate orders you are to act.

Your special motive is to destroy the bands of guerrillas supposed to be collecting in small squads in that vicinity--the whole force, when collected, supposed to be from Quantrill's band. The general commanding desires me to say that your duties are of a delicate and responsible nature, requiring you to exercise great energy, vigilance, and care in their performance. He will confidently rely upon you and the officers under your command to see that your men are held well in hand, kept in good discipline, and that no peaceable inhabitants shall suffer from their presence. At the same time he expects of you that, in the exercise of a sound judgment and discretion, you will act with the utmost rigor of the laws of war in all your dealings with undoubted guerrillas. Should you not find General Fisk at Hannibal telegraph him at Saint Joseph.

 O. D. GREENE,

 Assistant Adjutant-General.

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