one in one hundred. We know of no reforms in such persons, but in almost every instance after resting they begin their treasonable work with renewed vigor and malignancy. I am making an effort to get up a thorough organization of the militia of Kentucky with a full determination to extirpate the guerrillas from the State, and especially those who, hanging been released, returned to

their marauding.

Respectfully,

THO. E. BRAMLETTE,

Governor of Kentucky.

[OCTOBER 14, 1863. -For General Orders, Numbers 13, headquarters, Norfolk and Ports mouth, directing preparations for the execution of David M. Wright on October 16, 1863, see Series I, Vol. XXIX, Part II, p. 322.]

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Austin, Tex., October 14, 1863.

Major General J. BANKHEAD MARGUDER,

Commanding District of Texas, &c., Houston, Tex.

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 9th and 10th instant requesting the use of the State penitentiary for the safe - keeping of the Federal prisoners of war in your district and copy of your application to the financial agent of the institution to the same purport. The latter I return in accordance with your request. My reply to your communication of the 27th ultimo, containing the same request, was transmitted to you on the 9th instant. I therein stated I felt constrained to decline your application, by reason of the danger to which such use would expose the institution, and that its vital importance to the Trans-Mississippi Department would not justify its exposure to the risk of destruction which its use in the manner contemplated would inevitably entail. Your important communication of the 10th but adds strength to my former views on the subject. The precautions adopted to preclude communication between so large a number of prisoners and the convicts, howsoever great, could not succeed, and the danger of a rising by both combined would be imminent, to result in the destruction of the penitentiary upon which the army of the Trans-Mississippi District [Department] depends for its supplies of clothing, &c. Reflect, general, upon the terrible consequences its loss would entail, and then say if the object sought his at all commensurate with the appalling risk to us at this eventful moment. I much doubt if the institution can, without detriment to its efficiency as a

manufactory, accommodate such a large number. Most stringent regulations would necessarily have to be adopted to prevent intercourse between the prisoners and convicts, which might engender sickens, and a consequent lessening of the productions of the institution, which would be felt in the army at the approach of winter. Were not the penitentiary a manufactory (the sole one for clothing, too, in the Trans-Mississippi Department), as well as a place of confinement for prisoners, I could entertain no objection to your proposition. As it is I cannot venture to incur the risk, I cannot but feel, such use must entail. It is my intention to bring the matter to the attention of the Legislature, which meets on the 2nd proximo. Permit me to suggest, general, that the prisoners be scattered and confined in the various county jails of the State. Most of