Governor Reynolds from New Madrid, in which he requests me to say to you, "We need here an able general in the field and commanding the whole valley of the Mississippi."

It is the wish of Governor Jackson that operations in Missouri should be under control of an experienced or skillful general of the Confederate States, and he will take care that there shall be no conflict between the State and Confederate commanding officers. I am also authorized to say that Major-General Price desires to co-operate with the Confederate Army, and will allow no question of rank to interfere with the control of military movements in Missouri by the general of the Confederate Army whom you may send into the State.

Respectfully submitting this subject to your consideration, I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant,

E. C. CABELL.

HEADQUARTERS MCCULLOCH'S BRIGADE,
Camp at Pond Springs, Mo., August 16, 1861.

Soldiers of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas:

The reputation of the States that sent you here is now in your hands. If wrong is done, blame will attach to all. Then let it be the duty of all to restrain the vicious. Let not the laurels so nobly won on the 10th instant at the battle of the Oak Hills be tarnished by a single trespass upon the property of the citizens of Missouri.

The quartermasters of regiments will purchase all that can be had in the country for your use.

Let it not be said of us that we are not gentlemen as well as soldiers.

BEN. MCCULLOCH,

Brigadier-General.

FORT PILLOW, August 16, 1861.

General PILLOW:

GENERAL: You have passed the night, I hope, without an attack, and as the movements of the enemy are not very clear or his purposes plain, I cannot but also hope he may have determined not to occupy the island, and so have left you alone. His movement down to that island last night, and the facility with which he ought manifestly take possession of and occupy it, very much strengthens the conclusion I arrived at before leaving Memphis for your camp, and which, as I remarked in the council held at my quarters yesterday, it was the principal object of my visit to state to you, to wit, the paramount importance of our holding it ourselves, and that, too, by a portion of the force under your command. I have to repeat, therefore, the instructions given you last night in the dispatch sent you by the hands of Captain Gray, that your order Colonel McCown's brigade to advance to Island Numbers 10 and occupy and fortify it, as well as the main shore on the Tennessee side. I have placed the reconnaissance of the ground for this work, and the construction of the batteries, under engineer, Captain Gray, who has already, under my instructions, given attention to that subject.

The propriety of further delay in any movement contemplated by you in Missouri, by which you would be removed from Tennessee, is more urgently demanded by the fact that I have this moment received a dispatch from Richmond ordering the immediate removal of the two