V. Transportation will be furnished by the quartermaster's department. The commissary department will issue subsistence in King to the prisoners.

By command of Brigadier General P. O. Hebert, commanding Military Department of Texas:

SAML. BOYER DAVIS,

Major and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

NEW ORLEANS, October 10, 1861.

SECRETARY OF WAR:

The prisoners of war are, some of them, destitute of clothing-many without blankets. I would not* have clothed them had I remained in command. There are two companies of artillery among the troops at Bay Saint Louis. Shall I issue forage to them?

D. E. TWIGGS,

Major-General.

RICHMOND, October 11, 1861.

General D. E. TWIGGS, New Orleans:

Issue forage to the artillery companies in Bay Saint Louis. The prisoners must be furnished with such clothing and covering as are strictly necessary.

J. P. BENJAMIN,

Acting Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF TEXAS,
San Antonio, October 18, 1861.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

SIR: On yesterday I received your letter+ authorizing the commanding officer of this department to extend the parole of Colonel Bromford and other therein named now in this department as prisoners of war. If this letter were directory I should most certainly extend the parole to those officers at once; but at it is not directory, and I think there are good reasons that they should not be permitted to go beyond the limits of the Confederate States, I have notified them that the parole will not be extended until I receive further instructions from the War Department.

It is a fact and a deplorable on that has not been keep from the Department at Richmond, that there is a great scarcity of arms and ammunition in this department; and in addition to what has been said let me assure you that the scarcity is even much greater than I had anticipated, and that the want or positive absence of them renders it almost impossible if not entirely so to bring a force into the field sufficient to protect or defend the coast of Texas against the expected invasion by the enemy. It is also a fact that there is some dissatisfaction among the population of this immediate section of the State, and probably along the Rio Grande, and there is no doubt in my mind that a very considerable portion of the population of Mexico on our border would participle in a war on Texas if we were invaded by anything like a

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* The language of this telegraphic dispatch is ambiguous, but is printed here as received.

+ Not found.

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