should also inform you that my staff officers are en route to this place with funds for the payment and subsistence of my troops. A supply of sabers, cartridge boxes, & c., are also en route from Richmond. No other cavalry arms could be obtained from that quarter, and the Government informs me that General Taylor has none. In short, this country is absolutely destitute, I fear, both of men and material. I had the honor on another occasion to represent to you the importance of keeping the Valverde Battery with the troops so closely identified with it. I beg leave to report and urge this upon you, and I would respectfully request that the battery under Captain Sayers be ordered to New Iberia at once.

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

H. H. SIBLEY,

Brigadier-General.

[Inclosure.]

SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, No. 282. Richmond, Va., December 2, 1862.

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IV. Brigadier General H. H. Sibley, Provisional Army, will proceed to New Iberia, La., and resume command of his brigade, reporting by letter to Lieutenant General T. H. Holmes, commanding Trans-Mississippi Department.

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By command of Secretary of War:

JNO. WITHERS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

VIRGINIA POINT, TEX., December 26, 1862.

Mr. ARTHUR T. LYNN,

Consul to Her Britannic Majesty, and other Consuls and

Consular Agents of different powers at Galveston, Tex.:

GENTLEMEN: I received your communication of 22nd instant, in which you state that you have been informed by the mayor of Galveston that all communication between that city (Galveston) and the interior of the State is now cut off, and you request me to state for your information and guidance if this order is intended to prohibit you from obtaining those provisions from the State which are necessary for the support of the aliens remaining at the port and who now compose the majority of the inhabitants.

In reply, I have the honor to inform you, as indeed you well know, that the harbor of Galveston has been in the exclusive possession of the enemy since early in October, and that Confederate soldiers or citizens, even singly, cannot pass into the city without being fired upon by the fleet, which commands all approach from the interior. Under these circumstances the citizens of Galveston, without regard to nationality, have been invited to the interior, and transportation offered free of cost to all. This was availed of to some extent. The invitation has been renewed from time to time. More recently I directed Colonel Debray to give notice that persons could pass to and from Galveston up to a certain period; all intercourse would be prohibited; by my order [he] requested the mayor of Galveston to communicate to the foreign consuls this determination of mine, and to state to them that I would