night before, there was no knowing where it would find you. I therefore indorsed the letter over to Colonel Duff to execute. A copy of the communication will be sent to you. In the meantime the arrangement which I propose is to transfer Hobby's regiment to Luckett's brigade, and to give you a regiment of cavalry in exchange, to mount Dashiell's battery, making it a battery of horse artillery, and giving Captain Chiltom a rocket battery,

You can tell the people of the west, and the officers and soldiers who have families there, that as soon as I have secured some vital points here, which the enemy can take advantage of and injure us deeply, I will place troops in the west in sufficient number to capture the enemy if he advances into the heart of the country. Therefore, please hurry forward Duff's and Hobby's regiments, as well as the artillery, which I hope to mount her, several planters having a good many fine horses. These orders, seemingly contradictory, are based upon reports which seem to be reliable, and though they may prove untrue, yet must be respected in the present aspect of affairs. Do what you can to allay the discontent in Hobby's regiment, and assure them that they shall be well cared for. You may communicate as much of this letter as you think proper, but settle the affair and bring the troops. Orders must be obeyed at all hazards.

Please communicate with me at Captain John Rugeley's farm, and also at Columbia.

[EDMUND P. TURNER,]

Assistant Adjutant- General.

HEADQUARTERS,
Fugeley's Farm. December 6, 1863.

His Excellency PENDLETON MURRAH,

Governor of Texas:

SIR: Saluria has fallen into the hands of the enemy, and he is making extensive preparations for a formidable invasion of the State from Matagorda Bay. Re- enforcements of men, artillery, and horses are daily passing to him. Under these circumstances, as the military commander of this district, I cannot too deeply impress upon Your Excellency the absolute necessity both of providing for the continuance in service of the present State troops until after the war, and of bringing into the service for the war all the rest of the population of Texas capable of bearing arms, the latter to be at once organized and armed, and such a system of rotation in service to be decided upon by Your Excellency and the commanding general of the district as to insure the defense of the country as well as the cultivation of the soil, so far as the produce of corn, wheat, potatoes, and other vegetables are in question.

I hope the Legislature will not have adjourned without acting upon this vital question; but if it be so, and Your Excellency have the power, I recommend that all not now in service from sixteen to seventy capable of bearing arms be at once organized, those to act as cavalry who furnish their horses and arms, the others as infantry; but should Your Excellency not have the power, should the Legislature have adjourned with- out acting upon the subject, I respectfully submit to Your Excellency whether the safety of the State does not require your reassembling the Legislature to act upon this specific proposition. Men for local defenses and minute men I find generally indisposed to leave their counties and to go into camps. Of course, no efficient defense of the country can be made in a war of this magnitude except by forces organized and massed.