takes letters from Governor Moore and several of our most prominent citizens.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

M. LOVELL,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT NO.1, New Orleans, La., April 17, 1862.

General SAMUEL JONES,
Commanding Department of Alabama:

DEAR SIR: We are threatened here with a scarcity of flour and other provisions. Mr. Salomon goes from here as a special agent to Richmond to endeavor to procure supplies. Please give him every facility in his business and endeavor to push forward by every possible means any provisions that he may succeed in obtaining. It is a matter of vital importance, and there is no time to be lost. I wish you would give the requisite orders in your department to enable Mr. Salomon to succeed in his mission.

The great importance of this matter will strike you at once.

Yours, truly,

M. LOVELL,

Major-General, C. S. Army.

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT ALABAMA AND WEST FLORIDA,
Mobile, Ala., April 20, 1862.

General S. COOPER,

Adjt. and Insp. General C. S. A., Richmond, Va.:

GENERAL: The occupation by the enemy of points on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad enhances so much the importance of holding this place, that I deem it my duty to bring it prominently to your notice.

As I am at present informed, the only railroad and telegraphic communication between the Atlantic States and those bordering on the Mississippi, between the Army of the Valley of the Mississippi and the seat of Government, passes through this city. The supply of flour and grain in New Orleans is so reduced, that the general commanding and the governor of Louisiana regard that city as in more danger from famine than from the guns and troops of the enemy.

Special messengers are sent from Louisiana to procure flour from the Atlantic States, whilst those States are in great want of the molasses and sugar of Louisiana.

If this place is occupied by the enemy steam and telegraphic communication between the Atlantic and Western States is cut off, and there is little or nothing to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy, as I have stated in my letter to you of the 15th instant, if it is attacked in force by land and water.

The governor and people of Alabama are fully alive to the importance of holding Mobile. If arms can be procured, the men can be found to use them here; if additional arms cannot be procured, it becomes a question for the Government to decide whether the interest of the service does not demand that some armies troops be sent from some other point.

So far as I am informed, the enemy's land force in the Gulf is not such as to indicate any intention on their part of undertaking extensive