CONFIDENTIAL.] HDQRS. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT.

Shreveport, September 22, 1864.

Major General J. G. WALKER,

Commanding District of Texas, &c.:

GENERAL: I am directed by the general commanding to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th instant and to say he desires that the board suggest in his letter of the 17th take into careful consideration the practicability of defending Galveston with the means at your disposal; also of the capacity and character of the works. In reply to so much of your letter as relates to negro labor, he directs me to refer you to General Orders, Numbers 55, current series, from these headquarters, which requires that the Conscript Bureau shall enroll the negroes and send them forward to the rendezvous when required-that is the extent of their duties. The commandant of slave labor for the State is under the immediate orders of the district commander, who can make such distribution of the labor as he thinks most advisable. General Magruder was telegraphed to assign an officer to duty as commandant of slave labor for the State of Texas. He assigned Major Boone, and by this time negroes ought to be coming into his rendezvous. I inclose copy of an order to General Greer, issued to-day. In this connection General Smith desires me to say that Lieutenant Colonel S. A. Roberts, assistant adjutant-general, at Bonham, Tex., has bee doing duty as superintendent of slave labor for the Northern District and objects to serving longer unless a senior is assigned as commandant of the State. General Smith understands that Colonel Roberts will be willing to assume the duties as commandant of the State and desires me to say that he was formerly in the army and is a very efficient officer for that purpose. He came to this place upon the publication of General Orders, Numbers 55, for the purpose of consultation. His suggestions pertained to the details in bringing the negroes into service and could not well be embodied in a general order. They gave evidence of his efficiency for the discharge of the duties and he was requested to continue to discharge them until his objections to serving under a junior officer could be brought to your notice.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. R. BOGGS,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT.

Shreveport, September 22, 1864.

Brigadier General E. GREER,
Commanding, &c.:

GENERAL: The general commanding directs that you push forward the organization of the Reserve Corps of Texas, as he may at any time have to order it into the field. He desires that you will instruct Brigadier-General Robertson to that effect.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. R. BOGGS,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.