comfortable and will divide with them everything I get. Tell them to be still true and faithful and that they shall have their reward.

I have requested the President to appoint you brigadier-general; I have no doubt he will do so.

I shall soon send an officer to pay your men and officers some money.

And I am always your friend,

ALBERT PIKE,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Department.

HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DISTRICT,
Little Rock, Ark., July 7, 1862.

Brigadier General ALBERT PIKE,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Department.

HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DISTRICT,
Little Rock, Ark., July 7, 1862.

Brigadier General ALBERT PIKE,

Commanding Indian Country:

GENERAL: This will be borne to you by Captain L. P. Dodge, who is sent by General Hindman to receive and bring here the ten Parrott guns you have now with you. The general directs me to say that the necessity of taking these guns from you is forced upon him by the scarcity of heavy artillery on this side of the Mississippi and the number of streams navigable for the gunboats of the enemy which he had to defend. He has one 8-inch and one 9-inch gun now mounted at Devall's Bluff, but in case he abandons that position, as overwhelming numbers of the enemy may compel him to do, he will in all probability lose them, as his means of moving them are but meager. In that case your guns would be invaluable to him, while they may be wholly worthless to you. When White River,* his line of defense is the Arkansas, and without artillery of larger caliber than the few field pieces which he has, he would be in no conditio to make a successful resistance to the advance of the enemy through Arkansas.

Very respectfully,

R. C. NEWTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

RICHMOND, July 9, 1862.

Honorable GEORGE W. RANDOLPH,

Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor to state in reply to your letter of the 8th instant that the commands of Generals Price, McCulloch, and Van Dorn when in the field west of the Mississippi were amply supplied with transportation. When they were withdrawn most of it was left behind, and directions were given to the officers of the quartermaster's department to have were given to the officers of the quartermaster's department to have it keep in proper condition and have the wagons repaired and the broken-down animals recruited. Although not in possession of specific reports, I am satisfied that there is abundant means of transportation in the country to meet the demands of a force of 30,000 men. The three principal quartermaster posts are at Arkadelphia, Ark., on the Washita River; at Little Rock, on the Arkansas River, and at Monroe, La., at which points arrangements for transporting troops and obtaining field transportation can be readily made. In obedience to your directions to submit an estimate of funds requisite to provide for an army of 30,000 men I respectfully state that a formal estimate of funds

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* Truly copied-ALBERT PIKE.

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