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

COLUMBUS, KY., October 13, 1861.

General COOPER, Adjutant-General:

The troops here all still actively engaged in preparation for the defense of this point, and hope to have the work completed soon. I anticipate no immediate advance of the enemy on this line; and learning that they are advancing in considerable force on Bowling Green, I have ordered thither all the available forces, and to-night will repair there myself and take command in person. General Hardee has already arrived there, and by to-night three-fifths of his command will have arrived, and the whole be en route. Deficiency of rolling-stock did not permit me to make his movement more compact.

A. S. JOHNSTON.

BOWLING GREEN, October 13, 1861.

General S. COOPER:

Major Breckinridge is with this army. He has resigned his position of Senator in stirring address to the people of Kentucky. He will enter the army, if necessary, as a private soldier. Please say to the President that he will accept any position that may be tendered him. Permit me to suggest his name as a brigadier-general, either for the Kentucky brigade or for a separate column, to be directed through the strong southern-rights counties in Eastern Kentucky. I make this suggestion on my own responsibility, but with a knowledge of Major Breckinridge's views.

S. B. BUCKNER, Brigadier-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., ORDNANCE OFFICE, Richmond, Va., October 14, 1861.

HonorableJ. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of War:

SIR: General Walker informs me he has 4,000 men at Huntsville without arms. They are well drilled, having been in service some months. He asks arms for them, and requests that 4,000 be sent to him out of the first supply, and I beg leave to ask attention to his wants.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. GORGAS, Lieutenant-Colonel, Chief of Ordnance.

HDQRS. FIRST DIVISION, WESTERN DEPARTMENT, Columbus, Ky., October 14, 1861.

Major GORGAS, Chief of Ordnance:

You are aware that when I took command of the field in the West, to which I was assigned, we were without ordnance supplies of every description. This made it necessary, after obtaining all that was accessible from other quarters, to order such supplies as the defenses of the field demanded.

I ordered Colonel Hunt, the ordnance officer of the State of Tennessee, who was acting as my agent, to make such contracts as were necessary. This he did, and they have been filled as rapidly as practicable. A list of these contracts I have inclosed, to show you the kind of supplies