Chap.XII.] CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - CONFEDERATE.

In reply, I beg leave to state, and I do so with much regret, that it is utterly impossible for me to comply with your request. There are no arms belonging to the State at my disposal; all have been exhausted in arming the volunteers of the State now in the Confederate service in Virginia, at Pensacola, and on our own coast, in all, some twenty-three regiments. Georgia has now to look to the shot-guns and rifles in the hands of her people for coast defense and to guns which her gunsmiths are slowly manufacturing. I deeply regret this state of things, for to respond to your call with the arms you need would afford me the greatest gratification.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOSEPH E. BROWN.

ORDERS, HDQRS. CENTRAL DIVISION OF KENTUCKY, Numbers 1. } Bowling Green, Ky., September 18, 1861.

The undersigned hereby assumes command of the Central Division of Kentucky.

* * * * * * *

S. B. BUCKNER, Brigadier-General, C. S. Army.

BOWLING GREEN, KY., September 18, 1861.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant-General:

I occupied Bowling Green at 10 this morning with 4,500 men. I have sent forward an advance of 500 men to occupy Munfordville. I have issued the following proclamation:

To the People of Kentucky:

The legislature of Kentucky have been faithless to the will of the people. They have endeavored to make your gallant State a fortress, in which, under the guise of neutrality, the armed forces of the United States might securely prepare to subjugate alike the people of Kentucky and the Southern States. It was not until after months of covert and open violation of your neutrality, with large encampments of Federal troops on your territory, a recent official declaration of the President of the United States not to regard your neutral position, coupled with a well-prepared scheme to seize an additional point in your territory which was of vital importance to the safety and defense of Tennessee, that the troops of the Confederacy, on the invitation of the people of Kentucky, occupied a defensive post in your State. In doing so the commander announced his purpose to evacuate your territory simultaneously with a similar movement on the part of the Federal forces whenever the legislature of Kentucky shall undertake to enforce against both belligerent the strict neutrality which they have so often declared. I return amongst you, citizens of Kentucky, at the head of a force the advance of which is composed entirely of Kentuckians. We do not come to molest any citizen, whatever may be his political opinions. Unlike the agents of the Northern despotism, who seek to reduce us to the condition of dependent vassals, we believe that the recognition of the civil rights of citizens is the foundation of constitutional liberty, and that the claim of the President of the United States to