the conscript act as amended in 1863 and 1864, composed or men between the ages of eighteen an forty-five. Is there no way to secure their service to the country under Confederate authority? These companies are to some extent a refuge to deserters from infantry in the regular service. How can these State officers be punished? How can they be controlled when they are found in the jurisdiction of Confederate officers? This is a conflict which ought to be remedied.

I desire, especially, to call your attention to the growing evil of cotton traffic with the enemy. The enemy made frequent raids from Vicksburg to the interior of the State, and the object [of] these raids is to procure cotton, which is accumulated by citizens of the Confederacy at points accessible to the enemy. The various persons authorized by the War Department to trade with the enemy in cotton, for which army supplies are obtained, do not to their duty under the contract. But these contracts are a shield to cover collateral commercial transactions in which the Government and its interests are lost sight of. The country is filled with men and women agents of these contractors, who are peddlers and dealers in everything which is not needed by the Government. The policy of granting contracts to parties to exchange cotton for army supplies is not only a failure, but it is corrupting the people, and under this a constant intercourse with the enemy is kept up, in which the enemy is the only party benefitted. I cannot paint a picture to which the state of the moral condition of this people can be truly represented; the women are losing their real faith and patriotism through this intercourse and traffic with the enemy. And the men, what can they be when the women are lost to their country?

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

ANDREW J. KELLER,

Colonel, Provisional Army, C. S.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. FIRST DIV., FORREST'S CAVALRY, Numbers 95.
Oakland Church, July 26, 1864.

I. Colonel Duckworth, commanding First Brigade, will move the Fourteenth Tennessee Regiment into a camp at the place of Mr. Buck Gillespie's.

II. Colonel Wickliffe, commanding Second Brigade, will detail a company of FIFTY men to relieve the company from General Buford's DIVISION, now on outpost duty on the road from Pontotoc to Prairie Mound. The company will report to-day, and will be provided with forage and rations for three days. Scouts will be kept well in front, and al information forwarded promptly to General Forrest's headquarters, Okolona.

By order of Colonel J. J. Neely, commanding:

L. T. LINDSEY,
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,

Richmond, Va., July 27, 1864.

General R. E. LEE:

GENERAL: Information is given the Department that General Morgan is making preparation for an expedition (probably under your orders), and that Colonel Bradford, with some forces of Vaughn's bri-