and Macomb and Forts Jackson and Saint Philip. If the first are passed we still have a land defense to make; if the last, a fleet can proceed at once to the city.

3rd. I shall send up this week the Crescent Regiment, the Twentieth Regiment, two batteries of artillery, four companies of Mississippi volunteers, besides several separate companies, which will make eight regiments, four batteries of field artillery, and several companies, armed, equipped, and provided with a good supply of ammunition. I cannot organize the militia left here without the assistance of a general officer of experience and detailed knowledge. The circumstances of the case render it imperative. You will see by the letter accompanying this that I have urged upon the President the appointment of Major Smith as the proper person to fill that position. His engineer duties are drawing towards a condition which will enable him to be of great service in command of troops. He knows the whole country from personal observation, and, moreover, is fairly entitled, from his great and faithful labors, to be put more nearly on a par with his classmates at the Military Academy, all of whom are in high position-mostly general officers. He is willing to act as the engineer officer of the department in connection with a command in the line. My desire is to place him in charge of the troops intended for the defense of the interior lines, which as an engineer he has constructed, and as ordnance officer armed and provided. His appointment would be acknowledged by the community here a just tribute to faithful merit and valuable services rendered. They feel much indebted to him for their present condition of defense. Major Smith is a classmate of Smith, Van Dorn, Longstreet, Anderson, McLaws, D. H. Hill, A. P. Stewart, myself, and others high in rank. He alone, one of the first in the field, has been left in a position of interior rank. The absence of General Ruggles demands a brigadier here, and there us every reason, public as well as private, that Major Smith should receive the appointment. I hope you will urge it upon the President, and let me know by telegraph his answer. I want the services of a general officer at once.

4th. Several persons here are refusing to take Confederate notes. They do not come under military supervision or I would put an end to it in short order. What do you think should be done? I am almost daily urged by prominent citizens to declare martial law here. It would, however, only remedy a few evils, while causing much inconvenience. I think that every desirable end could be attained by a military police and a registry of all comers. I would like to have your views about the propriety of having martial law here. Thus far I have steadily declined to do so.

5th. After the disasters in Tennessee, and when I became satisfied that Columbus could not be held, I ordered all the stores on hand at Baton Rouge to be sent here, as that city could be taken and all the public property there destroyed by half a dozen gunboats at a dash. Meanwhile I am enlarging the laboratory and arsenal here, so as to be prepared, in some small measure, in case the Baton Rouge works should be destroyed. It does not seem to meet with the approval of Colonel Gorgas, who regards it rather with the eye of the head of a bureau than as a military commander. Meanwhile I must go ahead with preparations which I consider to be of vital importance until you put a stop to them. I have at the Marine Hospital a steam-engine and a large number of hands employed in repairing arms, making ammunition, &c., and had it not been for this we never could have forwarded eight regiments