the number to 309. In addition to those confined here, there are 101 confined in the yard of the county jail, with no covering but the blue canopy of heaven, making a total of 410 of our troop held in durance vile, leaving only about 210 in camp. The query will doubtless be asked, where are other 350 men necessary to fill our troop to maximum number enlisted? Some are quietly sleeping the sleep of death, fallen among the heroes who have sacrificed their lives for their country's honor, others are wounded or sick, and have found a temporary refuge in various hospitals, but the vast majority are missing. Why they are missing, or where they are, the future alone can disclose.

We have, gentlemen, endeavored to give an authentic and concise account of the affairs of our troop since its organization (if it can be so called) to the present time, and would respectfully solicit you to carefully consider our statement, as well as to ponder our helpless and useless condition.

In conclusion, we would impress upon your minds the facts that we were falsely enlisted; never mustered in as a regiment; never properly officered to armed; and that in taking this stand we have been actuated by a desire only to have justice done unto us. Having taken our position in advance of any orders to march, therefore, we claim only what the humblest in the land may demand-simple justice from the hands of a Government we would have died to save.

Believing in the integrity and justice of our Government, we place our cause in your hands, humbly praying that we may be rescued from our incarceration amid smoke and vermin, whose name is legion, and be honorably discharged from the service of the United States, thus being relieved from an organization which has become odious and unbearable to us, thereby enabling those who wish to re-enlist and opportunity of doing so, where they can do justice to themselves, their country, and God-given principles of self-government.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

M. COOPER PAUL.

OSCAR B. MORRIS.

HARRY M. GEARY.

WALTER G. WILSON.

WILFRED H. KEELY.

NASHVILLE, January 12, 1863.

Major-General ROSECRANS:

DEAR SIR: Agreeably to promise, I called to see those of the Anderson Cavalry in mutiny, for the purpose of reasoning with them. I found them so firm in the belief that they are doing right, and so decided, that anything I could say would be useless, even with those from my section of country. The most lamentable feature that presented itself to me is the fact that a number of those who were out to the front, and did so nobly, are now in jail, firm in the belief that they have been swindled into the service, preferring, they say, to go to jail and stay there, as a matter of principle, than to serve with the regiment; while some, quite a number, of those who did not go out are now in camp, doing duty. I told them that the first duty of a soldier was obedience, and, while they acknowledge the fact, they say they have never received any satisfaction as to how they were to serve. I conversed with only a portion of them, finding it time thrown away. One fact I desire to call your attention to. The mutineers are confined in two places here, and the most of