in the country to supply the wants of the people, and if there is any force left in this section of the country, corn must be shipped up the river. Meat can be procured here, I think, if we had salt. A small party of Federals made a raid into Ozark on last Monday; they numbered about 100. Captain Dorsey was near Ozark; had some 30 men with him. He had a skirmish with them; he got 3 men wounded and several horses killed. The citizens report 4 Federals killed and 17 wounded. The Federals left that evening; went up toward the head of Mulberry. The citizens here are very anxious for a force to be left in this section sufficient to insure peace to the country against jayhawkers and what few Federals are left on the border.

From the best information we can get, there are but few Federals at Fayetteville; do not number over 1,000 men. If you can, have supplies sent up the river sufficient to supply the troops. Place Colonel Brooks in command of the cavalry. Do not cramp him by placing men over him that are not disposed to go very far north. All that is necessary to be done is to have an energetic man to go to work; one that will collect the forces together and then lead them on. This country can be freed and those vandals driven from the State. Farmers are wanting to go to work, but there will be but little done in regard to farming unless those thieving jayhawking villains are hunted down and hanged. Now is the time for a small force to do some good.

The Federals are enrolling the militia at Fayetteville and also in Madison County. Let this be broken up, and we would have no trouble in collecting up the men that have left their commands and enrolling those that are subject to military duty. Send corn up the river; have means furnished to buy supplies that can be obtained here, and, in my opinion, you will very soon hear of the farmers going to work as far north as Fayetteville. Colonel Brooks will start on Monday morning with a scout for Van Buren. He will no doubt be able to learn more than he now knows in regard to the Federals.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN CRAWFORD.

HEADQUARTERS HINDMAN'S DIVISION,
Little Rock, February 8, 1863.

Lieutenant General T. H. HOLMES,

Commanding Trans-Mississippi Department:

GENERAL: I have received your note of yesterday, stating that my services cannot be dispensed with, and hoping I will not persist in my application to be relieved of duty in this department and ordered to report to General Bragg. In justice to myself, the application should have been made when I was superseded. At all events, it ought to have been made and insisted on when the late Secretary of War, in a letter to the House of Representatives, ignored facts which had been officially communicated to him, and made the impression that I had assumed command here without any rightful authority, thereby offering my reputation and influence as a sacrifice to the malcontents and demagogues of this country, though, at the same time, availing himself of and transferring to my successor the troops which I had raised, and with which I had, so far, successfully resisted three Federal armies. There were, if possible, still stronger grounds for my applying to go east of the Mississippi, when I afterward asked, through you, to make a report, to be laid before the House of Representatives, showing how I

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