near Mobile, and is assigned to the command of all troops at and near Montgomery, where he will select a proper location and establish a depot for the instruction of new troops. In the selection of a site, the general will consult convenience for transportation, health, and economy.

III. Brigadier General A. H. Gladden, P. A., is relieved from duty with the Army of Pensacola, and will proceed to Mobile, Ala., and report to Brigadier General J. M. Withers, commanding Army of Mobile, for duty.

IV. Colonel J. B. Villepigue, Thirty-six Regiment Georgia Volunteers, is announced as chief of artillery and engineers on the staff of the commanding general, in place of Captain Wm. R. Boggs, C. S. Engineers, resigned.

By command of Major-General Bragg:

GEO. G. GARNER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF PENSACOLA, No. 5.
Near Pensacola, Fla., January 27, 1862.

* * * * *

III. Brigadier General J. K. Jackson is assigned to the command of the First Brigade, and will immediately relieve Brigadier-General Gladden.

IV. Brigadier General Samuel Jones, Provisional Army, having reported for duty, is assigned to the command of the Army of Pensacola. The regret of the major-general at yielding the immediate command of this army, which he has exercised with so much pleasure and pride, is lessened by a knowledge that he devolves it on a tried veteran, every way worthy of confidence.

By command of Major-General Bragg:

GEO. G. GARNER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT NO.1,
New Orleans, La., January 28, 1862.

Honorable J. P. BENJAMIN,

Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 19th instant, by Captain Townsend, relative to the plan for floating defenses on the Western waters.

The fourteen vessels named in your telegram were seized and appraised by a board consisting of Messrs. Bogart, Stephenson, Frost, Grinnel, Milliken, and the naval constructor, Porter. Several of the vessels were costly and could be replaced by others equally well adapted to the contemplated service at much less expense. I have therefore caused those changes to be made, reducing the value of the seizures from $900,000 to $620,000, and the ships we have are as good, or better, for what we want, than those named. The parties owning these ships are anxious to be paid at once, as in some instances agreements had been made for their sale. Are these appraised values to be paid out of the appropriation of $1,000,000 made by act of January 9, 1862, or is that money to be expended for altering, fitting up, payment, and subsistence of officers and men? If the latter, now shall I pay the owners, who are clamorous for their money? If the former, $1,000,000 is not enough. The fourteen vessels named in your telegram would alone have cost nearly that sum.

I think it advisable that the captains should recommend to the President some competent person to have general control of the fleet in fitting