if necessary, as we have friends who will furnish post horses from Dallas to Greenville.

Yours, most respectfully,

M. JEFF. THOMPSON,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

CAMP BENTON, MO., August 25, 1861.

Captain BEN. TALBOT:

SIR: I am instructed by Brigadier General M. Jeff. Thomspon to call your earnest attention to the inclosed general orders.* He has heard with much indignation that you are carrying on an indiscriminate course of impressment, and that friends suffer as often as foes by your actions. He desires me to assure you, on his word of honor, that he will hold you strictly accountable for your action in these matters; or, to use his own words, "Tell Captain Talbot, by God, I'll hang the first man, be he private or officer, be he sworn in the service or not, who transgresses the inclosed general orders"

JOHN M. LANGAN,

Asst. Adjt. General, First Mil., Dist., Missouri State Guard.

RICHMOND, VA., August 26, 1861.

Governor H. M. RECTOR, Little Rock, Ark.:

If the regiment to which you refer in your dispatch of the 22nd is armed and equipped it will be accepted, and is ordered to General McCulloch. Otherwise not.

L. P. WALKER.

MEMPHIS, August 26, 1861.

Adjutant-General COOPER:

I am informed that there is a regiment from Canton, Miss., now on its way to Grand Junction to go to Virginia. If the Government means to defend the valley of the Mississippi we must have troops, and I respectfully but earnestly protest against the removal of the troops from this valley, on which we must rely for defense. May I not urge upon the Department the sending forward to Tennessee all the regiments that may be found in the States south of us to be organized into an army to meet in a few weeks hence the large army now concentrated in Missouri for a descent on this valley? If it be possible, I hope this appeal may reach the seat of chief authority immediately.

L. POLK.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT Numbers 2,
Memphis, Tenn., August 26, 1861.

[General HARDEE:]

GENERAL: Your messenger, Colonel Borland, with your dispatch was received by me at Fort Pillow, as he will ere this have informed you.

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*Not found.

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