Please inform me. I have issued your order as received. And further, can I allow the owners of mines to land men and materials to develop theor lodes?

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

B. R. WST,

Fourth California Volunteer Infantry, Commanding Post.

RICHMOND, January 11, 1864.

Mr. PRESIDENT:

SIR: The Secretary of War informs me that the Government cannot for want of funds enter upon the enterprise which I have the honor to submit to Your Excellency. This I very much regret, as I did desire above all things to inaugurate and comsumate the enterprise upon a large scale. But as an amount of specie funds would be necessary for that purpose, which it seems the Government cannot command, the enterprise on that basis must be abandoned. Yet feeling a detemination if permitted to aid the Confederacy in her present struggle for independence and to secure a home under the Confederate flag for her numerous friends and amirers on the Pacific Coast, I have deemed proper to present the matter to Your Excellency upon a scale conforming to the present ability of the Government, to wit: I propose to immediately return by way of Mexico to California and there perfect the sercret organizations throughout that State, and to raise from 1,000 to 1,500 volunteers, who will furnish their own arms, transportation, &c., and with whom I will capture Fort Buchanan and the town of Tucson, the present Federal capital of the Territory, with all the troops, Government property, and Federal civil officers in Western Arizona, and hold permanent possession of the Territory in the name of the Confederacy. In order to enable me to accomplish which I shall merely require that the Government reimburse my present expenses and defray my further expenses, invest me with the necessary authority, with a guarantee that the amount expended by each volunteer in furnishing his own arms, outfit, and transportation will be reimbursed by the Government, in addiytion to his regular pay. Most sincerely hoping that this proposition will meet the approbation of Your excellency and that I shall soon be in a position to render efficient aid to the Confederacy, and to strike some heavy blows which will do much toward bringingthis unholy war to a speedy close,

I have the honor to remain, your most obedient servant,

S.

P. S. - The paper herewith submitted marked A is the programme of the expedition under the former proposition and will be carried out under the present proposition so soon as the forces are sufficient.

L. W. H.

A.

MODUS OPERANDI.

I will immediately return by the way of Mexico to California, where I will perfect the secret organizations throughout that State, charter vessels, employ miners in the name of various mining companies, furnish transportation to emigrants in the name of the Mexican Immigrant Aid Society, and at a proper time forward the troops as miners

46 R R - VOL L, PT II