RICHMOND, November 25, 1861.

J. C. RAMSEY, District Attorney, Knoxville:

I am very glad to hear of action of the military authorities and hope to hear they have hung every bridge- burner at the end of the burned bridge.

J. P. BENJAMIN,

Secretary of War.

[No date.]

Captain DAVID McCLELLAN, Elizabethton, Tenn.

DEAR SIR: On the first page I had you copy of an order from the War Department and call your especial attention to it. You will send all prisoners under the first and second clause, except such as surrender voluntarily themselves and arms, to me to be sent to headquarters at Greeneville with the necessary witnesses to establish the charges against them. Those who voluntarily surrender themselves and their arms and have had no complicity with bridge- burning nor have been in arms you will please follow the order from the War Department.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. J. WHITE,

Captain.

HEADQUARTERS,
Greeneville, East Tenn., November 28, 1861.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond.

SIR: I think that we have effected something- have done some good; but whenever a foreign force enters this country be it soon or late three- fourths of this people will rise in arms to join them. At present they seem indisposed to fight and the great difficulty is to reach them. Scattering in the mountain paths they can scarcely be caught and as their arms are hidden when not in use it is almost impossible to disarm the. Cavalry though a bad force for fighting them incase they would fight is yet the only force which can reach them. It is adequate too to disperse and capture them in their present state of morale. I am confident that a mounted regiment wich two very light guns would do ore to quiet this tier of counties than five times the number on foot. Twenty-two prisoners have been sent to Nashville from Carter County and we have now in confinement some five or six known to have been in arms and who will be sent to Tuscaloosa under the order of the War Department dated the 25th instant.

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Very respectfully, general, your obedient servant,

D. LEADBETTER,

Colonel, Provisional Army, C. S., Commanding.

Instructions of Benjamin to Wood and others, p. 848.

54 R R- SER II, VOL I