Buckner, and he has to-day directed me to have the sawyers constructed and placed in position.

The expense will therefore be borne by the Confederacy, and I shall only ask of Your Excellency the use of the timber, tools, and labor which may be applicable by the plan now proposed.

I trust that Captain Farrand will feel no sensitiveness on this subject, for there is nowhere any intention to trespass on his domains. It is only and effort to help in the common cause.

Captain George E. Walker, C. S. Enginees, will be placed in charge of the work. Three hundred laborers have already been asked for, to be employed in changing the location of the guns in reference to the obstructions at Choctaw Bluff. It is believed that none have yet reported there, and it is important that they be sent forward as soon as practicable. The commanding general now proposes to construct some defensive works on the land side of both batteries, and an increased force of 1,500 laborers will be required for that object and probably for thirty days.

Captain Walker will want perhaps 300 workmen for the obstructions at Owen Bluff, and thus the whole number wanted at those two points will be 2,100, in addition to the 5,000 already asked for by General Buckner for Mobile.

i respectfully request that the whole may be sent forward promptly, and feel confident that the aid thus nobly furnished by the State and its Executive will soon result in the most satisfactory defensive arrangements for the city and the interior country.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

D. LEADBETTER,

Brigadier-General and Engineer.

[Indorsement.]

The suggestions of General Leadbetter meet with my entire approval The difficulties in the subsistence department will be removed.

Respectfully,

S. B. BUCKNER,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS WESTERN SUB-DISTRICT OF TEXAS,
Fort Brown, January 30, 1863.

Major A. G. DICKINSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Houston, Tex.:

SIR: I have the honor to report my arrival at this place, in accordance with orders dated 28th December. I am pleased to inform you that I find matters quiet and with the best prospect of a peaceable arrangement of the difficulties lately existing on this line. I have had no communication officially with the authorities of Mexico, but will at the earliest moment place myself in communication with the Governor of Tamaulipas, and endeavor to place our relations on a basis which will insure quiet the future.

I find that heavy importations of good necessary for the wants of the army and people are being received at Matamoras. Not less than sixty vessels are now off the month of the Rio Grande awaiting the slow