RICHMOND, VA., August 22, 1862. [Received August 23, 1862.]

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President Confederate States:

SIR: The Kentucky delegation in Congress are so deeply impressed with the importance of the presence of Major-General Breckinridge in Kentucky, should our army reach the State, that they charged me with the delivery of the inclosed letter, and to express the hope that you would make such indorsement upon it as you may deem right and that you would send the original or a copy to General Bragg. We deemed it right and proper to address General Bragg through you. I should have called in person but I am confined to my room by sickness.

I am, very respectfully, your friend,

H. C. BURNETT.

[Indorsement.]

THE SECRETARY OF WAR:

Let copy of letter be sent to General Bragg as requested. General Bragg's order to Van Dorn indicates that the request has been anticipated.

J. D.

[Copy sent to General Bragg August 25, 1862.]

[Inclosure.]

RICHMOND, VA., August 18, 1862.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President Confederate States:

SIR: Having such information as satisfies us that the Western army is now moving in two columns in the direction of Kentucky, one column under the command of General Bragg from Chattanooga and the other under the immediate command of Major General Kirby Smith, and entertaining no doubt that General Smith will be able in a short time to reach the very heart of the more wealthy and populous portion of our State, and believing from information derived from sources entitled to credit that a large majority of the people of the State sympathize with the South and that a large proportion of the young men will at once join our army, we regard it as of the very highest importance that as many of the officers as are in the service of the Government who are from the State of Kentucky, and who have heretofore held position in and had the confidence of the people of the State, should be in Kentucky when the army reaches there. We do not regard this as so important looking merely to military results, but we desire to present it to your consideration in its political aspects. We have now in Kentucky a civil government opposed to us; elections have recently been held in which the voice of the people was suppressed by order of the Military Governor of the State; soldiers were placed around the ballot-boxes; the people were not permitted to volt without taking odious oaths prescribed by the military authorities unknown to and in derogation of the constitution; candidates who were the favorites of the majority of the people, who would have been elected, were peremptorily ordered to at once withdraw from the canvass under penalty of being immediately sent to a military prison, and officers of the election were directed not to place the names of candidates on the poll-books