being carried on to such an extent that the supply of fresh beef to the troops will in a short time be very difficult.

For the purpose of putting some check on the trade, with the approval of the general commanding, I will put in force the inclosed order. If the general commanding does not approve the mode suggested, I would respectfully urge the pressing need of putting some check on the business in some other way, or the public service will ere long seriously suffer for want of a staple article of subsistence.

One reason for adopting the mode suggested is that it will put a tax on a class of men who are at heart bitter enemies of our cause and Government' for the trade is almost entirely in the hands of such men.

Another reason is that the specie is an imperative necessity, for we cannot buy anything or obtain any service performed for any department of the public service without specie, and all applications of disbursing officers for specie are refused.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

SANTOS BENAVIDES,

Major Thirty-third Texas Cavalry, Commanding.

[Sub-Inclosure.]

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. LINE OF THE RIO GRANDE,

No. 4.
Carrizo, Tex., August 15, 1863.

From and after the 1st of September next, no permits to export beefcattle into Mexico will be granted except the owner or conductor of the cattle shall pay to the commanding officer granting such permit $10 in specie in exchange for $10 in Confederate States currency.

SANTOS BENAVIDES,

Major Thirty-third Cavalry, Commanding.

OFFICER CHIEF QUARTERMASTER, FIRST DIVISION,

Fort Brown, Tex., August 21, 1863.

Captain EDMUND P. TURNER,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

CAPTAIN: I have received nothing from your office since my arrival at Brownsville, and consequently nothing to reply to. Since my last, I have the honor to state that I have cotton sufficient to meet the obligations of the Government, under our contracts for the cargoes of the Gladiator and Sea Queen, which will be forwarded to Alleyton as soon as landed. I am promised that they shall positively be crossed to-morrow, but it is hard to determine on account of private difficulties between the parties. They all, however, acquit the Government, and will give a written statement of a prompt and faithful compliance on our part.

I have forwarded some 60 carts this past week with stores for Alleyton, among which are some 20,000 pounds of powder, and will purchase everything that I can, and send forward as rapidly as possible. I will here state that, in consideration of the great uncertainty and delay in getting cotton here, and to prevent our being hereafter similarly situated to our present condition, I make all my purchases payable in cotton delivered at San Antonio or Alleyton. I find no difficulty now in buying on these terms at prices as low as if we delivered the cotton at Brownsville. I am gratified to say confidence is restored, and no feeling exists on either bank of the river.