country from falling into the hands of the enemy and laid waste we should be fully able to meet and repulse them. I have therefore, with the concurrence of Brigadier-General Carleton, commanding this department asked the Secretary of War to authorize the raising of two regiments of volunteers, with authority to recruit them either in this Territory or Colorado. As I have not heard from that Department you will aid us and probably save our country by calling the attention of the President and honorable Secretary of War to this subject and obtaining for us the order desired.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. F. M. ARMY,

Secretary and Acting Governor New Mexico.

NEW ORLEANS, January 7, 1863

Hon. E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: By the last mail I forwarded to the commanding general a dispatch received at the moment of its departure, giving a brief account of the disaster at Galveston. To-day I send the full reports as far as received, copies of which will also be forwarded to you, and also a brief statement of the condition of affairs in this department,military and civil to the general-in-chief.

I desire to call your attention now to the position of General Hamilton, not for the purpose of troubling you with responsibilities connected therewith which I am willing to assume myself, but to protect my administration from infamous calumniations propagated by men on his staff. My intercourse with the general has been pleasant. He is not a bad man, but lacks decision and force of character. I have treated him with profound respect up to the line of my duty. I did not, however, proclaim to him nor to those associated with him my destination. They ascertained that for the first time when we were in New Orleans. On our passage I was unable to attend to business, and passed with him only such courtesies as I was able to offer to my own officers and to my friends on board. Upon our arrival here I immediately gave him a full statement of my orders and of my proposed action. He was entirely satisfied; indeed on gentleman could have been dissatisfied so full, frank, and truthful was my duty and my orders. His impatience and the violence of those about him led me sooner to send a detachment of troops to Galveston than I should otherwise have done, and is immediately the cause of the small loss the army has sustained there. This was, however, upon consultation with Admiral Farragut and General Butler and the fullest confidence that our troops would be safe under the protection of the fleet.

General Hamilton is surrounded by men who are here for the barest mercenary purposes. Disappointed in their objects, they have been unsparing in their denunciations of the Government and especially of myself. They came on board the Government transport Illinois without my knowledge and against my orders, and as General Hamilton has said to me, have influence over him in consequence of pecuniary advances made to him while in the North. I desire it to be understood by the Government that any representations made by them to the Government or the people will be at least only a partial statement of the truth, if they be not entirely false. The strongest government in the world would break down under such a system of plunder as they desire