[Indorsement.]

Respectfully returned to the honorable the Secretary of War, as it has been attended to.

G. W. C. LEE,

Colonel and Aide-de-Camp to the President.

RICHMOND, VA., May 2, 1862.

Gov. JOSEPH E. BROWN,

of Georgia, Atlanta, Ga.:

Your dispatch of 1st May referred to me. I concur with you as to the importance of Chattanooga.

The six regiments called from Camp McDonald were with difficulty armed. Every effort was made to do so, that they might serve to defend the country to which you refer. They were removed without previously consulting me, and I have not been able to supply their place.

Your dispatch indicates a willingness to withdraw your former objection to the transfer of troops from the sea-coast of Georgia. If a brigade can be spared from there, General Pemberton will be directed to send it to Chattanooga.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT No. 1.,
Camp Moore, La., May 2, 1862.

[General BEAUREGARD:]

DEAR GENERAL: You are asking me to bring troops to Corinth. When the enemy were showed abreast of the city I had nothing in the shape of infantry except the militia of the city, who had but few arms, and those mostly shot-guns, and two or three regiments in process of formation under the last call of the President, who were entirely unarmed. I removed all the troops I could control to this point, where, by taking the arms from the militia and men over age, I have managed to get five regiments pretty well armed. One of these I have sent to Vicksburg to occupy that place, and shall send there several companies of artillery as soon as they arrive from Forts Pike and Macomb.

As the enemy will not hold the city in large force, probably not 10,000 men, I am in doubt whether I had not better organize forces on the various approaches to the city, with a view to keeping the enemy from occupying any more territory than what he absolutely stands upon, or whether I shall move up to the line of Vicksburg and Jackson. They will not have for some time troops enough to send up the river for the purpose of occupying, and Vicksburg, if at all fortified, will be able (with the troops I shall send there), to hold its own against any force they will be likely to send for some time to come.

I have telegraphed to Richmond for instructions relative to the burning of the cotton, which, if consumed in any considerable degree, will, I am sure, bring the people of the North and of Europe to an exact appreciation of the determination of our people to be free. They fear it at the North more than the loss of a battle.

I shall at all events be compelled to remain here for some time, in

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