CHARLESTON, S. C.,

October 22, 1863.

Brigadier General JOSEPH FINEGAN,

Lake City, Fla.:

Part of enemy's forces has left here, going southward; destination not yet known. Be on alert.

G. T. BEAUREGARD.

CHARLESTON, S. C.,

October 22, 1863.

Lieutenant General JAMES LONGSTREET,

Near Chattanooga, Tenn.:

Enemy's movements indicate an early attack on Pocotaligo or Savannah. Please send forthwith Anderson's brigade to latter city.

G. T. BEAUREGARD.

CHARLESTON, S. C.,

October 22, 1863.

Brigadier General H. W. MERCER,

Savannah, Ga.:

Hold Anderson's regiment of cavalry and Villepigue's light battery ready to move to Pocotaligo at moment's notice, with three days' cooked provisions and fully supply ammunition. Battery will travel by railroad. Enemy is moving southward.

G. T. BEAUREGARD.

HDQRS. DEPT. SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, AND FLORIDA,
Charleston, S. C., October 22, 1863.

His Excellency Governor M. L. BONHAM,

Columbia, S. C.:

GOVERNOR: Your letters of the 17th instant have been received inclosing two resolutions of the General Assembly, relative to relieving from service the poor of the six-months' regiments until they can gather their crops, and placing "at least one regiment of infantry and a squadron of cavalry, with one or two pieces of artillery, within convenient distance of the gaps of the mountains by which the State may be entered from Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina."

I have ordered a leave of thirty days to be granted at a time to 10 men out of every 50 of the poorest of the six-months' men, to attend to their corps.

As to the second resolution, I regret that the smallness of my force for the defense of Charleston and guarding the sea-coast, so imminently threatened at present by the enemy, will not permit me to send the troops called for to guard the mountain passes referred to, but Your Excellency's letter and resolution have been referred to the War Department, for its action.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

[G. T. BEAUREGARD,

General, Commanding.]