ence, and reports that another will go up to-morrow, with transports. I am in want of Semmes' battery. Can you send it to me? I hope that you will send me the Fourth Regiment. The Nineteenth has not a cartridge, and I can't get any from Memphis or Nashville. The Seventeenth Regiment is expected to-night. Answer.

DANIEL RUGGLES,

Brigadier-General, C. S. Army.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS C. S. TROOPS, Numbers 12.
Iuka, Miss., February 20, 1862.

Major Baskerville will take two companies of his command and proceed at once to Eastport, keep in view of the gunboat of the enemy reported in sight by his scouts, and watch the enemy, keeping his command without the range of the enemy's guns, not exposing his command in any way, but keep informed as to his movements, and act with due discretion, and report, as the exigency may require, to these headquarters.

By order of Brigadier General James R. Chalmers:

WM. M. STRICKLAND,
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

JACKSON, TENN., February 21, 1862.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.:

GENERAL: I retreat profoundly to have to acquaint the War Department that my ill health has made it improper for me as yet to assume the command assigned me.

In accordance with instructions, I repaired with as little delay as practicable to Bowling Green, Ky., and reported to General A. s. Johnston, commanding the department, on the night of the 4th instant. After several interviews with him and the fall of Fort Henry, an informal conference was held at my lodgings on the 7th instant, at which General Johnston, Major-General Hardee, and myself were present, for the consideration of the military exigency. On that occasion it was determined that Fort Henry having fallen and Fort Donelson not being long tenable, preparations should be made at once for the removal of the army on that line in rear of the Cumberland River at Nashville, while a strong point on that river some few miles below the city should be fortified forthwith against the approach by that way of gunboats and transports.

The troops then at Clarksville were to be thrown across to the southern bank of the Cumberland, leaving only a sufficient force in the town to protect the manufactories and other property in which the Confederate Government was interested.

In the event of a further retrograde movement becoming inevitable, Stevenson was chosen as a suitable point for a stand, and subsequent movements were to be determined by circumstances.

It was likewise determined that the possession of the Tennessee River by the enemy, consequent upon the capitulation of Fort Henry, must break the direct communication between the army at Bowling Green and the one at Columbus, which henceforward must act inde-