HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF PENSACOLA,
Near Pensacola, Fla., March 4, 1862.

Mr. C. L. LE BARRON,

Pensacola, Fla.:

SIR: You are aware that a number of troops have been recently detached from this army. It is important that I should have the services of every available soldier on this side of Bayou Grande. It is also important that I should keep a good and efficient guard in Pensacola. I have a battalion of volunteers now on that duty in Pensacola. I am convinced that the people of Pensacola are fully able to guard their own town quite as well as it is now guarded if the men will organize and volunteer for that service. I desire that you confer with the mayor and such citizens as you may think proper, and endeavor to organize a sufficient guard for the town. If that can be done, I can then avail myself of the services of the Fourth Battalion Alabama Volunteers here to defend the most important point.

Communicate to me with as little delays as possible what you can do to carry out the foregoing suggestion.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

SAM. JONES,

Brigadier-General.

[MARCH 4, 1862.-Major General Braxton Bragg, at Jackson, Tenn., issues an order resuming command of the Department of Alabama and West Florida, and assuming, in addition thereto, command of the troops in North Mississippi and south of Jackson in West Tennessee. See operations, November 19, 1861-March 4, 1862, in Kentucky, Tennessee, &c. Vol. VII, p.920.]

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT ALABAMA AND WEST FLORIDA,
Pensacola, Fla., March 5, 1862.

[General BRAGG:]

GENERAL: My movements here to carry out your order have been greatly retarded-more, I pressure, than you apprehended-by the want of transportation and the necessary facilities for moving guns.

The first train of cars from Pensacola to Mobile since the damage to the road started yesterday, and both the road to Mobile and that to Montgomery are in such bad condition that cars are not permitted to run on them at night. The president and superintendent of the Montgomery road, who came here this morning at my request to confer with me, promised to do all in their power to expedite the public business. I have directed that the superintended of the Mobile road shall remain at Polard, to direct the movements on all the roads meeting at that point. I am establishing a depot there, and will after to-day have a special train twice a day from Pensacola to that place, to carry such stores as cannot be immediately sent to Montgomery and Mobile. I have directed some supplies to be sent to Greenville, and will deposit others at Evergreen and Brewton, where I can procure storage temporarily, with a view of collecting them at the most suitable point as soon as practicable. The First Alabama Regiment is now in Pensacola, and will leave for Memphis via Mobile this evening. I will send forward the troops ordered to Corinth as rapidly as possible, and I am making and will continue to