tial to the protection of the defenseless and exposed sections and would operate as a valuable aid in the enforcement of the conscription I ventured to give it. The subject could not be made intelligible through the telegraph, and the emergency would not allow of the delay necessary to exchange communications by letter. I therefore took the step, confidently believing that its obvious propriety and utility no less to the Confederate States than to Alabama would secure your approval and vindicate my motives.

Col. James H. Clanton has authority from the War Department to raise for six months' service a regiment of cavalry, to be composed of men not subject to conscription, and to be employed "in the defense of the coast of Alabama and Florida west of the Apalachicola River." He is progressing very slowly in the formation of the regiment. In view of the exposed and undefended condition of the section indicated and of the necessity for a speedy organization of an effective force and of the ability of Colonel Clanton and his peculiar fitness for such service, I respectfully ask Your Excellency to permit him to enlist in his corps men subject to conscription within the counties above described (Coffee, Covington, Dale, Henry, Pike, and Barbour.) One of the most serious impediments to the formation of Colonel Clanton's regiment is that his authority does not allow him to enlist companies or any number less than a regiment. I trust that the order will be so modified as to allow him to enlist by companies or even smaller squads. The prohibition of the enlistment of less than a regiment is so obviously productive of delay, embarrassment, and difficulty that I need make no comments upon the subject. Without the authority to enlist men of conscript age and to enlist in smaller numbers I do not believe Colonel Clanton's regiment can be raised without very great delay, if at all. I regard the speedy organization o f the regiment to be under the command of Colonel Clanton as a matter of the highest importance, and I hope Your Excellency will pardon me for urging a modification of his authority to the extent above stated.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. GILL SHORTER,

Governor of Alabama.

[Indorsement.]

SECRETARY OF WAR:

As far as consistent I wish to comply with Governor Shorter's request. It may be done, I think, by allowing the men subject to, and enrolled to serve with Colonel Clanton for the short period named.

It is obviously a mistake to suppose that the companies cannot be mustered in when offered. The organization of the regiment must be delayed until ten companies have been mustered in.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

RICHMOND, January 10, 1863.

DEAR SIR: My attention having been invited to an order now on file purporting to have been issued by Col. John R. Baylor, while in Arizona, relative to the extermination of certain Apache Indians,* the

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* Order not found, but see Randolps to Magruder November 7, and Baylor to Magruder December 29, 1862.

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