for your Department to make some arrangement beforehand with the Memphis and Charleston Railroad Company for the transportation of the men and baggage. The excitement throughout our State is intense, and there is not a doubt that 10,000 would volunteer immediately to help you, if you need them, as soon as a gun is fired. And you can get plenty of men from Indiana and Illinois, too. Yours, truly, BLANTON DUNCAN. [4.] LOUISVILLE, April 12, 1861. Hon. L. POPE WALKER, Secretary of War, Montgomery, Ala.: DEAR SIR: The men are becoming very anxious to embark, and desire you to write immediately, stating positively whether or not their offer is now accepted. They are also anxious to ascertain whether they will be ordered to Charleston or Pensacola, in order that arrangements may be made in accordance; and, furthermore, wish to be assured that arms and uniforms will be furnished them immediately on arrival. I can be elected major of the battalion, but as one company is bitterly opposed to me, and would probably withdraw in the event of my success, I have determined to decline the position. For this reason I request you to take into further consideration the application I have made for an appointment in the C. S. Army, and as war seems now inevitable, for God's sake be speedy in your action. With an apology for that informality, and with the request that you will inform us upon the above points, I am, sir, with sentiments of high consideration, your most obedient servant, [4.] BEN. M. ANDERSON. ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, Capt. THOMAS H. TAYLOR, Montgomery, April 13, 1861. Regiment of Cavalry, Montgomery, Ala.: SIR: You will proceed to Louisville, Ky., via Memphis and Nashville, Tenn., and make examination for the establishment of recruiting rendezvous in each of those cities. You will do the same in respect to Frankfort, Lexington, Covington, or Newport, Ky., and such other places contiguous thereto as in your judgment may offer facilities for recruiting. You will report the result of your examination to this office, and await instructions for opening rendezvous. [1.] I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General. WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Brig. Gen. BRAXTON BRAGG, Commanding at Pensacola, Pensacola, Fla.: SIR: Communications addressed to this Department from Mobile treat as very practicable the opening of a route from Mobile to Pensa cola, known as the Perdido route. It is thus described in a sentence which occurs in a letter from Col. James E. Saunders, of Mobile, to this Department: A steam-boat can take troops or stores from Mobile and land them in a few hours at the head of tide water on Bon Secours, the eastern extremity of Mobile Bay; thence by land over an open road used for several years four miles and a half to tide water on Wolf Creek, western extremity of Perdido Bay; thence by steamer or schooner to eastern side of Perdido Bay, within seven or eight miles of the navy-yard. I request that you will as soon as practicable furnish the Department with your views in regard to the opening of this route, its probable cost, and value to the service. You will doubtless find many persons in Pensacola who will be able to furnish you information in regard to the route, which seems at some time to have been used. [1.] Very respectfully, your obedient servant, L. P. WALKER. ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, Montgomery, April 13, 1861. Col. WILLIAM J. HARDEE, C. S. Army, Commanding Fort Morgan, Ala.: COLONEL: In answer to your communication of the 8th instant I have respectfully to state that there are three companies at Mount Vernon Arsenal, which will be ordered to Fort Morgan. [1.] I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant, S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General. MOBILE, April 13, 1861. His Excellency JEFFERSON Davis, President of the Confederate States, Montgomery: DEAR SIR: At the instance of a number of our intelligent citizens, I write to say a word about the condition of Mobile in a military point of view. Colonel Hardee is, I understand, in command of Fort Morgan, but has no authority further than this. It is the general opinion here that he has a few (two or four) large guns, and that while he would be able to resist a sea attack, he cannot prevent vessels of light draft from approaching Mobile; that Fort Gaines has no defenses, and that Mobile is approachable through Grant's Pass, which connects Mobile Bay with the Mississippi Sound, and which is the route commerce takes from this place to New Orleans; all of which, however, you doubtless know as well as any one. Grant's Pass is out of the reach of Fort Gaines, which latter, as I understand it, was designed to guard the entrance to Mobile of vessels which by passing near it would be out of the effective range of Fort Morgan. It is therefore the opinion here that Mobile has no defenses against approaches from small vessels. Our volunteer companies having offered their services to the Governor and, having been accepted, we are about to be without men, arms, or ammunition here, and this is creating a feeling of insecurity among our people. I do not myself apprehend any such attack, because I do not see how the United States can under any semblance of law make it, but my object is not to express any opinion of my own or to give any advice, but simply to write facts at the request of our people. It would be acceptable to our people to learn that Colonel Hardee's command extended to Fort Gaines, Grant's Pass, and the approaches generally to Mobile. They have great confidence in him, but understand that his authority is confined to Fort Morgan. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your friend and obedient servant, [1.] R. H. SMITH. Hon. L. P. WALKER: LOUISVILLE, April 13, 1861. DEAR SIR: I have immediately sent out the following order to the captains of companies organizing, and I have no doubt that we can be able to move very quickly after your dispatch reaches me. I trust that the directions (which are according to our State regulations) about uniforming will be satisfactory to your Department. It is my intention to rendezvous the companies here immediately upon receipt of your dispatch and to take them by boat to Memphis, or by railroad through Tennessee, just as I may find it cheapest and can make the best arrangements. The cost from Memphis to Stevenson, I imagine, will be the same as from Nashville to that point, and by railroad we can go much faster than by boat. I will conform, however, to your directions. As you gave no directions in regard to the formation of the regiment, I will conform to our State rules, and may bring you more companies than you bargained for, unless directed not to do so. I am overwhelmed with applications for authority to raise companies. According to our rules a regiment may be composed of two or three battalions, of six companies each, and each under the command of a major. İf good men present themselves I should take the responsibility (unless otherwise directed) of accepting their services, if they were prepared to move, and would take them along with me. If a battalion should be ready sooner than the whole regiment, I will send it down at once under command of a major. Our men are all marksmen, as you are aware, and should by all means have rifles, as indicated in my first communiIcation to you. I shall have in the regiment several captains who under'stand light artillery tactics, and if it should be deemed advisable to attach one or more batteries to the regiment it can easily be accomplished. The war news from Charleston of the battle, though expected, has created a painful feeling of regret that the issue should have been forced upon the South, but you will find our people almost a unit in a few weeks. If deemed advisable for me to go to Montgomery for instructions prior to the departure of the volunteers from this point, I will do so upon receipt of any dispatch from your Department. The flag of the regiment is slightly different from yours, it having a large star upon the blue field in the center of the seven others. I have the honor to be, yours, truly, [4.] BLANTON DUNCAN. Hon. L. P. WALKER: JACKSON, April 13, 1861. JNO. J. PETTUS. No letter received from you. Thirty companies impatient for orders. NASHVILLE, April 13, 1861. Hon. L. P. WALKER: Leading military men of Tennessee meet here to-morrow to devise plan for concert of action to assist you. [4.] JNO. C. BURCH. Hon. L. P. WALKER: MOBILE, April 15, 1861. Yesterday I transferred to General Bragg the command of the Ninth Regiment Mississippi Volunteers under Chalmers, and the Tenth Regiment under Colonel Phillips. This morning I received the reports of the artillery companies of Captain Kerr and Captain Todd, at Hall's Ferry, and ordered them to march immediately and report to General Bragg. I go to Jackson to organize the additional troops called for. Respectfully, CHAS. CLARK, Major-[General], Commanding Army of Mississippi. [1.] ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, Col. W. J. HARDEE, Commanding Fort Morgan, Mobile, Ala.: SIR: I transmit herewith a letter from Mr. John T. Morgan, of Mobile, addressed to the Secretary of War. The Secretary desires that this letter be submitted to Major Leadbetter, with instructions to examine and report in full, with the least delay practicable, on the points suggested by Mr. Morgan, together with such views as he may have to offer, the letter of Mr. Morgan to be returned to this office with the report of Major Leadbetter. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General. [Inclosure.] MOBILE, April 4, 1861. General L. P. WALKER: DEAR SIR: I have just returned from Fort Morgan, where I was ordered to join General Clemens. Six companies of the South Alabama volunteers have left the service, but their places were readily occupied by the gallant North Alabamians. I did all I could to prevent the movement, but it had gone too far. The officers and non-commissioned officers of Captain Morgan's company attempted to remain, but Colonel Hardee would not admit them into other companies already organized, because they were as full as he desired to have them. They left the fort in tears. My brother had resigned his commission and was admitted as a private in another company and was afterward elected major. I saw Kennedy in the Florence Guards as private, and many other elegant gentlemen from that county and Madison and Limestone. Captain Forney, with forty-eight men from Calhoun, was permitted to remain at the fort until he could send home for other recruits. I hope he may be received. He has a good company, and the honor of that grand old county is wrapped up in his remaining there. I would like to say many things about Fort Morgan, but will not trespass on your time. My purpose in writing was merely, so far as business is concerned, to say that I hope you will at once direct that large tents with flies to them (of the pattern of officers' tents) will be sent to Fort Morgan for the troops encamped outside. If the whole garrison is kept inside the fort you may expect yellow fever and other serious diseases amongst them. The sand is so heavy and white on the outside as to render it very disagreeable, unless the soldiers can get the benefit of the breeze. With such tents as I mention they can have some protection from the sun and get the sea breeze, which is very fine. With these little close tents they are forced to remain out in the open sun, or else suffer very much from heat. It is not there as it is in Pensacola, where they have liveoak shade trees to protect them. At Fort Morgan all the trees, save a few scattering and stunted pines, are removed to prevent a cover to an approaching enemy, and there remains only a huge, unbroken waste of sand, nearly as white as snow and intensely hot. The most of the men from North Alabama are unused to exposure, and will be unable to stand camp life on the beach unless they have some shelter from the sun. They are all encamped outside the fort. If a hostile force of 1,500 well-disciplined men was landed three miles from Fort Morgan, and marched under cover of the sand hills, they could approach, with a front of nearly the whole breadth of the land, to a point within 300 yards of the glacis. Colonel Hardee is having the hills leveled, but it is a very heavy undertaking, and with his present force of laborers he cannot accomplish it in two months. Captain Maury is the only man in the fort who can load and fire a heavy gun with any precision of aim or any regard to tactics. Lieutenant Ball is there, and he is a man of sense and will make a first-rate officer, but I take it that he is not practically experienced beyond his training at West Point. Colonel Hardee and Colonel Leadbetter, of course, are not included in these remarks. Captain Maury is a man of brilliant talents, cool judgment, and great scientific and practical skill. He is indispensable to the service. I saw an experimental shot with a 10-inch columbiad made by Captain Maury with a shell provided with a new sabot of his own invention, and it was a most magnificent success. His second trial the shell was projected about two miles and a half and exploded within ten to twenty feet of the water. The first shot was equally as successful. Fort Morgan is safe from an attack seaward, but it seems to me that it is liable to great danger from a sudden land attack, especially in the absence of experienced artillerists. Pardon the length of this letter. DEAR SIR: I propose to raise one or more companies of volunteers to assist in reducing Fort Pickens. If required we will pay our own expenses and arm ourselves. We will require no pay for services. We wish to be permitted to return to our respective companies of cavalry so soon as Pickens is taken. An early answer will oblige, as a meeting |