Lieutenant Colonel H. C. Davis, with his headquarters at Grenada, Miss. All men who come within the above-mentioned age are ordered to report immediately to the conscript officers in their respective districts for enrollment and formation into companies, after which they will be reported to the commanders of the departments, who will organize them into battalions and regiments. They are not considered conscripts, but regular Confederate troops, mustered in for service in the State. They will also be allowed to choose their own officers. In taking command of this important branch of the service the general sincerely hopes you will second him in the discharge of his duties. It will be superfluous to appeal to the patriotism of the noble citizens of this State, which has been proved on many a hard-fought battle-field. Yet he would ask you, who have witnessed the destruction of your property, and seen your wives and children driven from home by the cowardly foe, to come forth at this hour of your country's need and nobly take up arms in her defense. To illustrate what reserve forces may do, I will cite their gallantry at Petersburg and at Staunton River bridge, Va. At the former place they rallied, hastily organized, but burning with ardor, and resisting successfully the fierce onset of a large body of the enemy; at the latter place, some 800 of these same reserve forces held the bridge against and drove [back] over 5,000 Yankee invaders. With these examples before you, I appeal to you as fellow Mississippians to come forward and prove that you can also buckle on your armor to resist the encroachments of a foe who is now seeking to devastate our beloved country.

W. L. BRANDON,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

ABINGDON, VA., July 24, 1864.

General R. E. LEE,

Petersburg, Va.:

General Breckinridge has ordered a detachment of Vaughn's brigade serving in the department to move to Winchester, Va. They are very much needed here for the defense of the country, and I respectfully ask that they may be retained. I have just received information that the enemy are concentrating on the Sandy for another move in this direction.

JOHN H. MORGAN,

Brigadier-General.

HDQRS. SOUTHWEST MISSISSIPPI AND EAST LOUISIANA,
Camp Polk, July 24, 1864.

Lieutenant General S. D. LEE,

Commanding, &c., Meridian, Miss.:

GENERAL: Upon my return to my command I found the excitement of the community raised to such a pitch about the shipment of cotton into the enemy's lines that I felt compelled to suspend, for a few days at least, all further operations in that line, and telegraphed you of the fact yesterday. The very heavy movements of Government cotton by the authorized agents in the district were upon such a scale that every man, woman, and child, whose inclinations prompted them, immediately set out with their wagons for Baton Rouge, Bayou Sara, and Fort Adams, in such numbers, and on such out-of-the-way roads that the slender force on picket in the district at the time was wholly unable to