March 12.—President Lincoln ordered as follows:
I. Major-General Halleck is at his own request relieved from duty as General-in-Chief of the army, and Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant is assigned to the command of the armies of the United States. The headquarters of the army will be in Washington, and also with Lieutenant-General Grant in the field.
II. Major-General Halleck is assigned to duty in Washington, as chief-of-staff of the army, under the direction of the Secretary of War and the Lieutenant-General commanding. His orders will be obeyed and respected accordingly.
III. Major-General W. T. Sherman is assigned to the command of the military division of the Mississippi, composed of the departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Arkansas.
IV. Major-General J. B. McPherson is assigned to the command of the department and army of the Tennessee.
V. In relieving Major-General Halleck from duty as General-in-Chief, the President desires to express his approbation and thanks for the able and zealous manner in which the arduous and responsible duties of that position have been performed.
—The rebel schooner Marion, bound to Havana, from Tampico, was captured by the steamer Aroostook, off Rio Brazos.—The rebel sloop Persis was captured off Wassaw Sound, Georgia, by the National gunboats Massachusetts and others.
