If retreat be necessary, you will make arrangements to destroy the bridges between the river and Chattanooga certainly and beyond all contingencies.

By command of Major-General E. Kirby Smith:

J. F. BELTON,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS,
Richmond, Va., May 1, 1862.

General D. LEADBETTER,

Chattanooga:

GENERAL: I am instructed by General Lee to say that he has requested Governor Shorter, of Alabama, to send two unarmed regiments from Talladega to Chattanooga at once, with such arms as he could, to report to you. Also that the Chief of the Ordnance Bureau has been directed to send 1,000 of the arms recently arrived at Charleston to Chattanooga, subject to your order or that of General E. K. Smith, to complete their armament. In the present great scarcity and demand for arms it is necessary to husband them as much as possible. The general trusts that you make a judicious distribution of those sent you. Not more than 400 or 500 of the improved arms should be given to a regiment, and those should be placed in the hands of the flank companies, the center companies being armed with the country weapons.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. H. TAYLOR,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS,
Richmond, Va., May 1, 1862.

Brig. General HUMPHREY MARSHALL,

Commanding, &c., Lebanon:

GENERAL: Your letter of the 22nd ultimo is received.* I have applied to the Secretary of War for the opinion of the Department on the subject of giving bounty to volunteers. his answer has not been received, but shall be communicated to you as soon as possible.

I think that I have not succeeded in making myself clear in my letter of the 21st ultimo. I intended that letter to be taken in connection with that of the 17th ultimo, and merely as explanatory of the letter in some respects. I stated in my letter of the 17th ultimo that the companies and regiments of your command were first to be filled from the militia ordered to report to you, and to that end authorized you to prevent recruiting from them for other commands. I had reference in this letter to yours of the 10th April, and intended to be understood as approving your design of increasing the Pound Gap battalion to a regiment, as well as completing your other regiments.

In my letter of the 21st ultimo I did not intend to change in any respect what I had said in that of the 17th. But supposing that you would have more than enough men to do what I had approved, and having already informed you that when your command was full the residue of the militia were subject to be enlisted in other commands

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*Not found.

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