opinion upon the subject. Lieutenant Booth, at the spring, will send your communication if you will sent it over some time to-night.

I have the honor, very respectfully,

J. M. F. ERWIN,

First Lieutenant and District Adjutant.

[Inclosure No. 2.]

CHATTAHOOCHEE, February 3, 1864.

His Excellency JOHN MILTON:

SIR: I staid last night at Mr. Bailes'. He told me that there was a hundred deserters waylaying the road for you between Chattahoochee and your place.

Respectfully,

LUKE LOTT.

[Inclosure No. 3.]

CHATTAHOOCHEE, February 4, 1864.

His Excellency JOHN MILTON:

SIR: Bailes lives 2 miles above Dr. William Coes' and 5 miles above Ochesee, in Jackson County, on road from Ochesee to Pope's. He is a reliable man.

LUKE LOTT.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF S. CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, Charleston, S. C., February 5, 1864.

General S. COOPER,
Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.:

GENERAL: My absence from these headquarters on important service connected with the arrangement of all available resources for the defense of Savannah in the event of an attack, of which I was warned by the War Department, has prevented the writing of this letter at an earlier moment, and will show, I trust, that if you have been obliged to telegraph me twice, mean time, on the subject-matter, the delay has been unavoidable on my part.

Taking the inquiries in their order of date, the first is that of the honorable Secretary of War, communicated from the Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, January 21, 1864, as an indorsement on a copy paragraph VII, Special Orders, No. 2 Department of South Carolina, Georgia,and Florida, January 2, 1864, which order is as follows, in words and figures, to wit:

Major A. M. Allen, commissary of subsistence, Columbus, Ga., will turn over to Major J. B. Morgan, commissary of subsistence Colquitt's brigade, 25 barrels sirup and 50 barrels corned beef for the use of the troops in Colquitt's brigade.

By command of General Beauregard:

JNO. M. OTEY,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

And in reply to the honorable Secretary of War's inquiry as to "the grounds of the order," I have to make the following statement: The commissary for the State of South Carolina, Major Guerin, having repeatedly admitted his inability to supply the troops in this vicinity by the means at his disposition, with his express wish, as