HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF TEXAS, &C.,
Houston, Tex., October 21, 1863.

Brigadier General W. R. BOGGS,

Chief of Staff:

SIR: I have the honor to state that Brigadier-General McCulloch has informed me that the enemy has been driven back, and that he regards the northern frontier as safe at this time. Under these circumstances, and as we are greatly threatened here, I beg that the brigade commanded by Brigadier-General Bankhead, now in the Indian Territory, may be ordered to me at once.

I wrote to you several days since on the subject, and hope that this matter may meet the earliest attention of the lieutenant-general commanding. My pickets, who have been in the vicinity of Opelousas, La., have just reported in the direction of the Calcasieu.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. BANKHEAD MAGRUDER,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF TEXAS, &C.,
Houston, October 21, 1863.

Brigadier General HENRY E. McCULLOCH,

Commanding Northern Sub-District, Bonham, Tex.:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 15th instant, with its inclousures.

In reply, I have to state on the 15th of September, though you had been assigned to the command of the Northern Sub-District, it was known at headquarters that you had not reached Bonham, and it was also known that Acting Brigadier-General Bankhead at that time had left Bonham for the Indian Territory, and was actually beyond the limits of Texas. Constant report reaching these headquarters of depredations committed by Indians and other enemies rendered it necessary that, under the circumstances and in the absence of Brigadier-General Bankhead, some speedy method of obtaining information in regard to the enemy and the condition of the northern frontier should temporarily by adopted until your arrival and assumption of command.

By a simple reference to the date of the orders furnished Colonel Gould, it will be perceived that the major-general commanding could not have intended to imply in any way that he could not rely upon the information that you would give respecting the enemy, and also concerning the state of feeling in the frontier counties, &c., for he had no official or other information of your arrival at Bonham until a letter, dated September 19, 1863, was received at these headquarters, at Sabine Pass, September 25, 1863, some time subsequent to the date of the order inclosed by you, which, by the way, is the 16th of September, and not the 26th, as stated in your communication.

In regard to General Orders, No.-, dated Sabine Pass, September 16, 1863, inclosed by you, I will state that it was issued in virtue of instructions from Lieutenant-General Smith, of 7th September, 1863, which have never been made known to you, and which directed Major-General Magruder to send out, on or about the 15th of September, a large cavalry force, to be scattered through the various counties of this district, to make known to every one the provisions of General Orders, Numbers 38, from the department headquarters, and to make the arrests if the order was not complied with.