Statement of James H. Cobb, Company A, First Florida Cavalry, sent out from these headquarters.

FEBRUARY 21, 1865.

My news is from day before yesterday. Opposite the Perdido Mills there are eight mounted men as picket. There is no courier now. At Greenwood there are 300 cavalry; at Blakely about 6,000 with batteries toward the bay. This force can be increased in half a day by 4,000 more from Mobile, which, however, could not be done if Mobile and Blakely should be attacked at the same time. I do not know what force they have at Mobile. It is the general report that they will not fight much to hold the city, but withdraw to Montgomery, tearing up the railroad behind them. Nearly all the Government stores are already removed. The Mobile and Pollard Railroad is guarded only at Williams and Canoe Stations. At Pine Barren bridge and at the ford above the bridge are pickets, and at Bluff Springs a small force- I do not k now the number. They say that Maury's regiment is again at Pollard, but I am of the opinion that there is only a small force there.

Statement of Private J. G. Childs, Company B, Sixth Alabama Cavalry.

FEBRUARY 25, 1865.

The colonel commanding regiment at Carson Station sent an order to officer commanding picket-post at Budd Williams' house to send three men out as scouts to approach as near the enemy's lines as it would be safe, and get what information we could, and to see if there was to be an advance soon. At Mobile they have not enough men to defend the place against an attack. I do not know exactly what force they have at Mobile, but am sure that the Fifteenth Confederate Cavalry and the Eighteenth Alabama Infantry are there. It is the general impression that the Confederates will leave Mobile as soon as attacked and withdraw toward Montgomery, destroying the railroad from Tensas Landing to Pollard. I know nothing about the force at Blakely or Greenwood, but heard that Armistead's brigade was at the latter place. At Canoe Station is the Sixth Alabama Cavalry, about 700 strong, Colonel C. H. Colvin commanding; the Eighth Alabama Cavalry, about 600 strong, Colonel Livingston commanding, and two companies of a Mississippi cavalry regiment. Left Canoe Station February 22. Does not know the force at Pollard. There are three companies of militia near the Little Escambia bridge, and, I think, between 400 and 500 infantry at the Big Escambia bridge. They have fears that a raiding party of about 15,000 men will leave Barrancas as soon as the roads will permit. The majority of Hood's army was sent to South Carolina, but many deserted at the railroad stations between Pollard and Montgomery; and at Montgomery a whole brigade of Cheatham's division (Alabama men) left the train en masse and went to their homes, determined not to return. The Mobile papers of the 22nd give the news of the evacuation of Charleston and Columbia by the Confederates and occupation by the Federal forces, and also that Sherman is advancing in the direction of Richmond. The informant desires to take the oath of allegiance and remain within our lines during the war.