CHAP. XI.] CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.

the Confederate States. Texas cannot support them for a longer term than one month. Should the acceptance of their services be declined, it will become necessary to disband them.

The State of Texas raised in March last a force of five companies to take possession of and occupy Fort Brown and Ringgold Barracks, on the Rio Grande. The men who compose it enlisted for six months, and their period of service expires on the 9th of September. They refuse to re-enlist unless they are relieved for more active service from these stations, in which they have labored very hard to restore the old fort and to give a greater extension to its works. If some steps are not taken at once to garrison these two points, that frontier will be unprotected at a time when the probable complication of political affairs in Mexico and the presence of a blockading force render urgent the presence of an efficient force on the Rio Grande.

The governor received on the 29th of July a requisition from your honor, dated June 30, for 2,000 men, to be kept in camps of instruction on two accessible points. The governor communicated with General Van Dorn to ask his opinion as to the location of these camps. The general, having received no orders on the subject from your Department, could give no answer. The governor would wish to know whether these troops are to receive their subsistence from the Confederate States or the State, and whether the camps must be accessible to some particular point or points of defense or merely to subsistence and stores.

General Van Dorn made a requisition on the governor for ten companies of infantry to garrison Galveston Island. These troops are now raised. Their term of service is for the war, unless sooner discharged. They are now awaiting their organization into a regiment.

In compliance with a communication from your honor, delivered to the governor by an officer of General Sibley's staff, the raising of his brigade was progressing when I left Texas, and its organization must have been completed by this time. The men are to serve for the war, and to supply their own horses and arms.

Sixteen companies are now on the march from Texas to Virginia. Their first column, composed of five companies, was at Niblett's Bluff, La., on the 16th instant. Two other detachments were to follow at two days' interval each. The twenty companies for which a requisition had been made from your Department were complete, but six of them were carried out of the State by Colonel Greer without the knowledge of the governor, who, so soon as he was apprised of the fact, took steps to supply the deficiency.

In conclusion, I would beg to state that the people of Texas are now fully impressed with the earnestness of the struggle brought upon us, and will answer with alacrity any call from the President of the Confederate States. The imperfection of the militia law of the State has been a source of difficulty for the executive. However, upon his suggestions the people are organizing, and about four hundred militia companies were reported to the adjutant-general's office on the 9th instant, the organization still progressing.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

X. B. DEBRAY, Aide-de-Camp to the Governor of Texas.

The governor of Texas tenders to the Confederate States the service of four mounted regiments, fully armed and equipped. One of these regiments has been for several months occupying Forts Cobb, Arbuckle,