I also called on General Howard for another volunteer, and he brought me a very clever young sergeant, who is now a commissioned officer in the regular army.

Each of these got off during the night by separate routes, bearing the following message, reduced to the same cipher we used in telegraphic messages: HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI IN THE FIELD, LAUREL HILL, Wednesday, March 8, 1865.
Commanding Officer, Wilmington, North Carolina: We are marching for Fayetteville, will be there Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and will then march for Goldsboro'.
If possible, send a boat up Cape Fear River, and have word conveyed to General Schofield that I expect to meet him about Goldsboro'.
We are all well and have done finely.

The rains make our roads difficult, and may delay us about Fayetteville, in which case I would like to have some bread, sugar, and coffee.

We have abundance of all else.

I expect to reach Goldsboro' by the 20th instant.
W.T.SHERMAN, Major-General.
On the 9th I was with the Fifteenth Corps, and toward evening reached a little church called Bethel, in the woods, in which we took refuge in a terrible storm of rain, which poured all night, making the roads awful.