dently intended for that purpose. It was reported that there were troops on Ship Island, but I did not hear the number. Negro troops, although in no large numbers at a time, were being sent there. It was also said that the Teche country had been given up by the Federals; troops were coming back from there. I one day saw about 1,500 cavalry coming in. At the time the Madisonville expedition left there was a large transport started down the river loaded with troops. The number of troops in and about New Orleans was not large, but I can form no estimate of them. I came by way of Baton Rougee, and at the time I left that point there were about 4,000 to 5,000 men there (white troops); it was reported they were going to take Clinton, which they did. I heard that troops were coming down the river from the West to Vicksburg and Natchez. From Baton Rouge I went to Tangipahoa and Camp Moore, and thence to Jackson. On that line I met some of our cavalry, but there is no regular camp until one gets to Greensburg, and that is a small recruiting station. The enemy had a pontoon bridge all ready to throw across the Big Black River, so I heard from good authority. The impression generally was that as soon as Farragut was ready an attack would be made on Mobile.

NOTE. - The foregoing statement is made by a well-known and reliable party.

CAMP, BATE'S BRIGADE,

Near Dalton, Ga., February 2, 1864.

At a meeting of the officers of Bate's brigade, held this day, Lieutenant-Colonel Turner, Thirtieth Tennessee, was called to the chair and Captain T. E. Blanchard, Thirty-seventh Georgia, appointed secretary. Upon motion of Captain Carson, Thirtieth Tennessee, a committee of one officer from each command in the brigade was appointed by the chair to draft resolutions expressive of the sense and object of the meeting:

Captain M. Kendrick, Thirty-seventh Georgia Regiment; Captain B. M. Turner, Fourth Georgia Battalion Sharpshooters; Captain Guthrie, Twentieth Tennessee; Captain Fry, Fifteenth and Thirty-seventh Tennessee; Captain Prendergast, Tenth Tennessee; Captain Carson, Thirtieth Tennessee; Adjutant Childress, First Tennessee Battalion, committee.

The committee withdrew, and after deliberation offered the following preamble and resolutions, which were unanimously adopted: Whereas, in consequence of the high price of rations sold to officers, as shown per schedule of prices hereto annexed, it has become impossible for regimental and line officers, especially subalterns, to subsist and clothe themselves out of the pay allowed by the Government; and

Whereas, so far from prospects of a change for the better, the evil is likely to increase and prove greatly detrimental to the common interest of the army and country:

Be it therefore resolved, first, That we, the officers of Bate's brigade, call the attention of our Congress to these facts, confidently hoping and urgently asking that they may in their wisdom adopt such measures as are necessary for our subsistence, either by the re

42 R R - VOL XXXII, PT II