SAN ANTONIO, January 15, 1861.

Lieutenant General W. SCOTT, U. S. Army, Washington:

GENERAL: Yours, through Colonel Lay, of the 29th [28th] December is received. I am placed in a most embarrassing situation. I am a Southern man, and all these States will secede. What is left will not be the "United States," and I know not what is to become of the troops now in this department.

Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia will certainly secede. After coercion, that I consider impossible to keep them in the Union. A guard would have to be put at every house in the country, and that would not keep in the Union. The feeling is universal, and the people are determined to secede. Coercion might have done at first; now it cannot. As soon as I know Georgia has separated from the Union I must, of course, follow her.

I most respectfully ask to be relieved in the command of this department on or before the 4th of March next. All I have is in the South, and as my health will now allow me to take an active part in the scenes that will probably be enacted, I must be a looker-on.

I am, General, with the greatest respect and regard, your obedient servant,

D. E. TWIGGS,

Brevet Major-General, U. S. Army.

[Indorsement.]

Relieve Major-General Twiggs, and ask the Secretary to devolve the command on Colonel Waite, with an assignment according to his brevet.

W. S.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF TEXAS,
San Antonio, January 18, 1861.

(Received January 30, 1861.)

The ADJUTANT-GENERAL, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: The legislature of this State convenes on the 21st instant, and the Convention one week after. No doubt but the State will secede by the last of this month. All is quiet in my department (except the Comanches). No attempt has been made to interfere with the public property. All that has been in the Department of the East; and where was the redoubtable hero that boasted he had two hundred thousand men on hand to regulate the South? Verily, military men should be cautious how they threaten the people. After secession I know not what will be done. I know one thing, and that it, I will never fire on American citizens.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

D. E. TWIGGS,

Bvt. Major General, U. S. Army, Commanding Department.

SPECIAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF TEXAS,

No. 10.
San Antonio, January 22, 1861.

I. The governor of this State having informed the commanding general that information has reached him that an effort will be made by an unauthorized mob to take forcibly and appropriate the public stores and