best body of troops for our service. I hop this will have your most favorable consideration. In addition, there is a vast amount of arms, ammunition, transportation, horses, mules, &c., that require immediate attention.

I will further state that Major G. Tom Howard will furnish subsistence upon your desire for the horses and men until a definite contract be made.

Permit me to call your attention to application of George Fairfax Gray, who has been our State engineer since he resigned his commission in the U. S. Navy. His abilities, scientific attainments, and great experience in the management of heavy ordnance would commend him to your consideration with great force for immediate service.

Our State is gliding on quietly under the administration of Governor Clark. General Huston, since he was deposed, has sunk quietly beneath the waters and left not a ripple upon the surface.

Yours, respectfully,

T. N. WAUL.

Q. M. GENERAL'S OFFICE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS,

San Antonio, Tex., March 28, 1861.

Honorable L. P. WALKER,

Secretary of War, Confederate States of America:

SIR: As one of the commissioners for securing the property of the late U. S. Government, and also as quartermaster and commissary general of the State, I have taken the liberty of addressing you informally with reference to the property, and also with regard to the estimates for the two regiments which are being called into service in this State. Inclosed you will find an enumeration of the most important items taken from the late Government.*

I regard it as a matter of great importance that this property should be turned over to the Government of the Confederate States at as early a date as possible. I have just see Honorable Thomas J. Devine, commissioner and prominent member of the Convention, who informs me that the Convention would have turned over the property to the Government had they not been so pressed for time. The Convention has adjourned. the legislature is in session, and I have no doubt that they would act promptly upon suggestions of President Davis in reference to this matter.

It is essentially necessary that we should have a commanding officer in this department at as early a date as possible. Colonel Maclin (formerly a paymaster, U. S. service, and now adjutant and inspector general and chief of ordnance of the State) has been performing the duties of commanding officer here. In a few days the companies which are to form the regiments authorized by the State and Confederate States will be concentrating here. You will, therefore, see the necessity of having a commanding officer here to organize and station the two regiments.

Inclosed you will find a rough estimate to enable the quartermaster and commissary to supply the two regiments for three months. I have taken Fort Lancaser as a mean distance of the various posts formerly occupied by U. S. troops, and made my estimates for that distance. The estimates would be much less for the next three months.

Owing to the immense amount of transportation taken to remove the

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*Not found.

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