OPERATIONS IN N. C. AND S. E. VA. [CHAP.XIII.

be notified accordingly. No idea of where they purpose making a demonstration.

J. F. MILLIGAN, Captain and Signal Officer.

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Richmond, November 21, 1861.

His Excellency HENRY T. CLARK, Raleigh, N. C.:

SIR: Your letter of 18th instant, in regard to the condition of some of the border counties of North Carolina, and asking for arms for two regiments, has been received. I regret that I am not able to fill your requisitions for arms. If we had them to spare they should cheerfully be placed at your disposal for the purpose designated. The supply just received by the Fingal is by no means so large as has been represented. We received but 9,000, and these have been divided between Generals Lee and A. S. Johnston, in whose departments the danger of attack by superior force seemed most imminent. I can assure you, however, that arrangements have been made to secure the safety of Eastern Tennessee and Northwestern North Carolina, and to crush out all treason in that section, which will doubtless prove effectual.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. P. BENJAMIN, Acting Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE PENINSULA, Yorktown, Va., November 25, 1861.

Brigadier-General McLAWS, Commanding at Young's Mill, Va.:

SIR: I have lost and am losing the services of the efficient body of engineers who have been in the service of the State of Virginia since the war, and who have been engaged in constructing most of the defensive works on this Peninsula. It is not possible to do without these officers, as the line of our Army cannot furnish military engineers. These officers are all of them well educated, and many (such as Mr. St. John and Captain Rives) distinguished for great talent and energy. All have devoted themselves also to military engineering, and all are highly qualified for the duties required of them. From the very larger number of points requiring defense, there are of necessity a great many works. Those on the water must be completed and property armed or they cannot be defended, however devoted the garrison may be. The last storm almost entirely destroyed the works at Mulberry Island Point, on James River. The work is in sight of the enemy. Negroes have deserted from it and informed the enemy of its situation. They will attack it, I presume, as soon as they can make preparations, and, if they carry it, as they probably will, in its present state, a great disaster may happen. It was under the command of Virginia. He has resigned, as he could not obtain the rank of major in the provisional or volunteer service, and would have been ranked by the two captains, who had been under him, and who, from the nature of the service, cannot know the duties with which Captain Noland is familiar. I beg that Captain Noland may received the rank of major, Provisional Army. I do not write in a spirit of complaint. I know the difficulties which surround the President, and, for one, fully appreciate them, and explain the to