directed to place at your disposal two picked regiments of cavalry, to assist in collecting conscripts, arresting deserters, &c. Lieutenant-General Smith directs me to say this force must be used to advantage-no half-way measures resorted to, but action prompt and decided. By sending a single company into one of the parishes of Louisiana, 400 conscripts were obtained, only, however, after shooting four of their number. This is the argument which must be used in your district if milder measures will not secure the desired end.

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

S. S. ANDERSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Shreveport, La., November 5, 1863.

Brigadier General WILLIAM STEELE,

Commanding Department of the Indian Territory:

GENERAL: The lieutenant-general commanding directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of October 24, and to say you will be guided by your own judgment as to the propriety of making an attack upon Fort Smith. General Cooper would certainly have done wrong in attacking the place in the absence and without the knowledge of the commanding officer of the Department of the Indian Territory. Moreover, he should not have undertaken any expedition of the kind without previously notifying the department commander, so that co-operation by the troops of General Holmes might have been directed. The lieutenant-general commanding thinks, from your representation of the enemy's force and condition, that an attack without co-operation with General Holmes would be extremely ill-advised. He desires that you will not allow your own feelings or the wishes of your troops to influence your decision.

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

E. CUNNINGHAM,

Lieutenant and Aide-de-Camp.

NEAR CAMP BRAGG, ARKANSAS,

November 6, 1863.

President DAVIS,

Richmond:

If truth needed an apology, I would apologize. Your ernest desire to preserve unimpaired the boundaries of the Confederate States is well known, and that you seek that, by striving to preserve in the council and in the field a morality which shall deserve success is equally well known. This fact alone emboldens me to call your attention to some most unpleasant truths.

When Jo. Shelby, or any of the old jayhawking, captains, makes a raid into Missouri, he and all his followers adopt the pirates' law of property. Mankind are considered but objects of prey, and, astonishing and painful as the knowledge must be, they rob indiscriminately friend and foe. If such work is not soon arrested, it may be continued indefinitely, for not a friend will be left in all that country to be ruined. Shelby boasts that on the last raid he completely "gutted Boonville;" also that many Southern families, hearing of his approach, had removed their goods out of doors, expecting him to burn their houses. In fact, sir, the Shelby-Marmaduke raids in that country have transferred to the