show that 9 major-generals and 34 brigadier-generals have already been appointed for that command, making a surplus of 2 major-generals and 5 brigadiers. True, he finds that some of these general officers are not under assignment or with their proper commands on account of sickness or other causes; but they still hold their appointments, and the President has not the power to remove them from office. It is for the reason he is prevented from making additional appointments of general officers for your command. You remark that many recommendations made are not ratified, and some general officers, appointed or promoted without recommendation from this quarter, are only incumbrances and would be better out of the way. The President had been under the impression that all the appointments of general officers for your command, or nearly all, had been made by him on the recommendations of the commanding general, and he would be glad to be furnished with the names of the individual officers to whom your objections apply. He is aware that many recommendations that were made were not ratified by him, and for reasons which he considered good and sufficient and for the interest of the service.

Those portions of your letter which relate to subsistence and transportation have been referred to the chiefs of the staff department having charge of those branches, and will receive due attention.

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

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

RICHMOND, VA., July 22, 1862.

BRAXTON BRAGG, Tupelo, Miss.:

GENERAL: The Trans-Mississippi Department is a separate command, independent of your command, and to which Major-General Holmes has been assigned as its commanding general.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

RICHMOND, VA., July 22, 1862.

Gov. JOHN J. PETTUS, Jackson, Miss.:

Captain Brown, of the Arkansas, requires boatmen, and reports himself doomed to inactivity by the inability to get them. We have a large class of river boatmen and some ordinary seamen on our Gulf coast who must be now unemployed. Can you not help Captain Brown to get an adequate crew?

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

HEADQUARTERS, Tupelo, Miss., July 23, 1862.

General COOPER:

GENERAL: The great importance of the line of connection through East Tennessee, now seriously threatened by a heavy column under General Buell, forces upon me the necessity of still further strengthening the position held by Major General E. K. Smith. To do this necessarily places me on the defensive here so long as the enemy keeps up the