with your request, believing that his services would be more valuable to the public interest in some other capacity. Mr. Hooper is truly patriotic and true to the Southern interest, and his services, considering his age, should be appreciated.

I committed an error in my letter of Sunday in stating that the officer with whom I had the interview was second in command. I misunderstood him. I have learned since he was only purser of the blockading squadron.

We have had some little excitement in camp to-day. For the purpose of obtaining better water I had to move my command nearer and in front of the enemy. This morning the Bella Italia, one of the captured boats, came into Shell Bank, and, from her movements, I supposed she was coming down the cut, but she only went down the Corpus Christi channel some 200 or 300 yards below the cut and returned. Shortly afterward the schooner got under way and took a position as near our camp as she could, and has been throwing shell occasionally ever since, but nothing has come near enough to us to create any apprehension. She is some 3 or 4 miles from us. She evidently had not given us the full strength of her guns, as I observe the fuse in every case was too short. What she may do hereafter can only be determined by future experiments. I intend to hold my position at this point until driven or ordered away, unless I deem it necessary to aid some other point. I must have more transportation to remove all of my guns and camp equipage, besides ammunition.

On yesterday the bark and captured schooner left and sailed up the coast. This morning the bark returned, but without the schooner. I was apprehensive she was going down toward Corpus Christi Pass, but I think she did not. If I observe her going down the coast I will send an express.

Very respectfully,

BENJ. F. NEAL,

Captain, Commanding Company of Artillery, Coast Defense.

Colonel C. LIVENSKIOLD.

AUGUST 10, 1862.-Affair on the Nueces River near Fort Clark, Tex.

Report of Lieutenant C. D. McRae, Second Regiment Texas Mounted Rifles.

SAN ANTONIO, TEX., August 18, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to report, for the information of the general commanding, the result of a scout under my command, consisting of detachments from Captain Donelson's company, Second Regiment Texas Mounted Rifles; Captain Duff's company, Texas Partisan Rangers; Captain Davis' company of State troops, and Taylor's battalion; amounting in the aggregate to 94 men, rank and file.

I left camp on the morning of the 3rd instant on the Perdinalis and proceeded up the South Fork of the Guadalupe River.

On the morning of the 6th instant struck the trail of a party of horsemen, numbering, as I suppose, from 60 to 100; pursued the trail in a southwesterly direction four consecutive days, and on the evening of the 9th instant, about 3 o'clock, my advance guard reported a camp in sight on the headwaters of the Western Fork of the Nueces River. I immediately diverged from the trail to the right, secreting my com-