CHAP.XIII.] CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-CONFEDERATE.
arms, please send them to me. I have field artillery here not manned, field light guns, three 12-pounders and three 24-pounder howitzer guns. If there are artillery companies in Richmond waiting for light batteries, please send me two, at least, and I will give them guns and horses. I am in immediate want of five. I am not surprised that our batteries are taken by the enemy when we cannot get artillerists to serve them, and when infantry are drilled as artillerists they are frequently ordered away and new infantry placed at the guns, as was the case with the two Alabama companies recently ordered away from here. I had to substitute two Mississippi companies of Taylor's battalion for them. I hope the President will authorize the governor to call the militia asked for ,as the objection seemed to be a want of arms, which I an in a great degree remedy.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. BANKHEAD MAGRUDER, Major-General, Commanding.
YORKTOWN, December 11, 1861.
J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of War:
SIR: In addition to the militia called for by me by telegraph to the governor , I think I can also arms such of the regiments from Richmond as cannot bring arms with them. I have placed in depot at Williamsburg and Jamestown Island about went days' rations each for 10,000 men. If I am forced from below by overwhelming numbers I am sure that with the small number of troops I now have Yorktown would soon be invested, and I doubt of its being able to hold out long after the ammunition of the large guns is exhausted. Though I think we shall make a strong fight, perhaps drive them entirely off, they will bring against us their Port Royal ships of war and all others they may have .As it will take some time for the militia to assumable, I hope they may be ordered out at once. I have the honor to request that General Cooper will cause a telegram to be sent to Savannah to know, if possible, whether the Wabash and Susquehanna are still on the waters of South Carolina or Georgia. From the magnitude of the naval preparations, and especially from the size of the ships, I may infer on which river-York or James-the attack will be made.
Most respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. BANKHEAD MAGRUDER, Major-General, Commanding.
YORKTOWN, December 11, 1861.
General S. COOPER, Adjutant-General C. S. Army:
GENERAL: Having received a circular from the governor of Virginia directing the colonels of militia to respond to the call of any of the Confederate generals, I have called into the field the militia of Charles City, James City, and New Kent; those counties being in my department. I have done this because, in consequence of the large number of sick and absentees and the necessity of operating with my whole force in the lower country, Jamestown Island and Williamsburg have been left for the present without any infantry garrison. I have also been informed by the adjutant-general of the State of Virginia that the Nineteenth and the One hundred and seventy-ninth Militia Regiments, city
