will find nothing up stir their courage. Their unwilling soldiery, forced to conduct a brutal warfare against an unoffending people, who desire only the blessings of freedom and of peace,will never subjugate the people of Texas, who will strike only in the sacred cause of self-defense.

But you must always be prepared for this purpose. I called upon the Governor of your State for 10,000 State troops, who are now being organized. I now call upon the citizens of the State to perfect their organizations at once. I also call upon the slaveholders of the State everywhere to respond fully to the call I have made for one-fourth of your working hands to work upon the fortifications, to drive wagons, and to do that labor which soldiers, who should be in the ranks, are now performing.

There are two other classes of our fellow-citizens to whom I trust I shall not appeal in vain. I recommend all citizens over the age of fifty years, who are able to do service as cavalry, and all others whose civil offices or employments exempt them from service, to at once organize themselves in the different counties in companies of minute-men, provide their own ammunition,arms, horse, saddle, and bridle, and keep continually on hand twenty days' rations of dried beef, so as to move at a moment's warning in any direction. As soon as you are organized in companies, send muster-rolls to the headquarters. These companies I will not call out except when an emergency arises, and they will return to their homes when they desire to do so. Let communications on this subject, after the organization of the companies, be addressed to Captain Edmund P. Turner, assistant adjutant-general.

Adopt this plan throughout Texas, so that an army of minute-men, who are exempt from forced service, bearing the rifles that once repelled the Mexican invader, may rush at a moment's warning from your prairies,and, with their aid, the organized forces of Texas will sweep from your borders any army that may come to murder and plunder upon your soil.

Cur barbarous foe already gloats over the prospect of your desolated homes, and your helpless women sacrificed to his unbridled licentiousness. He will learn that the spirit of the Alamo is the quick spirit of the land, and that Texas will not suffer her some to be subjected to territorial vassalage, nor her daughters degraded to be the associates of enfranchised slaves.

Let him who has been shirking the contest arem in defense of home, report to those regiments in Texas not yet complete, and taste for once the pround of defending the soil that has fed him. Let all remember that the protection promised by degrading oaths of Federal allegiance is a delusion and a snare. If the army should be left at a disadvantage by the cowardice of those who should recruit and sustain it,they shall reap no benefit from their baseness. Such unpatriotic men shall not be left between my lines and the enemy, seeking to cover by perjury the wealth amassed by grinding extortion.

J. BANKHEAD MAGRUDER,

Major-General, Commanding Dist. of Texas, New Mexico,and Arizona.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DIST. OF TEX., N. MEX., AND ARIZ.,

No. 190.
Houston, Tex., July 16, 1863.

* * * * * *

VIII. 1 The fortifications at Vicksburg having been carried by the enemy, the most energetic exertions are required of all to place Texas,