23 December 1861

Monday, 23d Cool & pleasant. The court convened again this morning. Gen. Totten was here and reviewed the artillery here. Col. Davis captured 1300 rebels at Wilmot, Mo. last week.

[orders and circulars Loren would, or should, have seen concurrent with his diary entries...]

Circular, Head Quarters US Forces, Paducah, Ky, Dec 23rd, 1861
Commanding Officers of Regiments and detached Companies will send in immediately a report of the kind, no & caliber of the arms of their commands and the amounts of ammunition on hand for each to be reported by 10 o'clock tomorrow morning at the latest.
By order of Brig Genl C. F. Smith

Headquarter District of Cairo, Cairo, December 23rd,1861
Circular } Hereafter in order that there may be no difficulty in conveying the sick to the Genl Hospital in Mound City and the return of the convalescent to their companies the Steamer 'B' when available and the Rob Roy when she is not available will make tri-weekly trips between Cairo & Hospital as follows : Will leave Cairo at 10 o'clock P.M. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays returning as soon as authorized by the Surgeon in charge. The attention of Company commanders is again called to the necessity of furnishing Descriptive Rolls for all sick sent to the General Hospital. The Surgeon at Hospital will report all cases of neglect to comply with this paragraph.
By order of Brig Genl U. S. Grant, Comdg.