time, disband such companies: Provided, That in the States and districts in which the act entitled "An act to further provide for the public defense," approved April 16, 1862, and the acts amendatory thereof, have been suspended, persons of any age resident within such States or district may volunteer and form part of such companies so long as such suspension may continue: Provided, That no person shall become a member of said company until he shall have first taken the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America in writing, a copy of which shall be filed with the muster-roll of said company as above prescribed.

Approved October 13, 1862.

HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Shreveport, La., September 10, 1863.

Major General J. B. MAGRUDER,

Commanding District of Texas, &c.:

GENERAL: In inclosing to you the within Special Orders, Numbers 134, Paragraph I, I am directed by the lieutenant-general commanding to say there are in General Price's division some 2,000 unarmed men; also, under orders from the Department of War, the men on this side of the Mississippi River, who formed in part the prisoners of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, are ordered to be reorganized. He will thus have some 8,000 veteran troops to place arms in the hands of. He desires, therefore, you will use every means in your power to forward to Shreveport the arms mentioned in the inclosed order.

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

S. S. ANDERSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Inclosure.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,

Numbers 134.
Shreveport, La., September 10, 1863.

I. Major-General Magruder, commanding District of Texs, &c., will forward to this point the first six thousand arms, with the accouterments that may arrive in Texas from abroad.

* * * *

By command of Lieutenant General E. Kirby Smith:

S. S. ANDERSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Shreveport, La., September 11, 1863.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President of the Confederate States:

SIR: I have the honor to inclose Your Excellency a copy of the proceedings of a conference called by me at Marshall, Tex., on the 15th ultimo.

Immediately on the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, I felt that our communications with the General Government at Richmond were irretrievably lost, and that the department must henceforth depend entirely on its own resources. Knowing the despondency this great disaster would occasion throughout the entire population west of the