WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,

Richmond, Va., June 11, 1864.

General E. KIRBY SMITH, Commanding, &c.:

GENERAL: My attention has been called to recent arrivals of steamers at Havana from trans-Mississippi ports, laden with cargoes of cotton, exclusively on account of ewers of said steamers. Under an act to impose regulation upon the foreign commerce of the Confederate States, to provide for the public defense, approved by the President February 6, 1864, and the regulations thereunder, approved March 5, 1864 (copies of which were sent you some time ago, but which, I presume, miscarried), every vessel sailing from a Confederate port is required to carry out one-half of her cargo for account of the Government, and on her return trip to bring in a similar proportion of Government goods as freight. Copies of the above-mentioned act and relations are inclosed herein, and I beg to invite your attention, in a very special manner, to the execution of their provisions.

With the proceeds of outward, to the three will be no difficulty in supplying, to a great extent, the wants of your department. The agent of the Government at Havana, to whom the Government cargoes should be sent, is Colonel C. J. Helm. There is no agent of the Government at Vera Cruz, or at any other neutral port adjacent to the coals, and if necessity for such agent should arise the selections of a suitable one would devolve upon you. The whole business of the Government at a port should be placed in the hands of one agent for obvious reasons.

Colonel Helm has, under orders from the Chief of Ordnance, purchased some 10,000 arms, to be shipped to your department from time to time as opportunity offered. I am informed that a good proportion of them has already been dispatched. These arms constituted part of the cargoes of the schooners Caroline Goodyear and Lovebird. They are not yet wholly paid for. Efforts are being made to supply Colonel Helm with the necessary funds by shipment of cotton from Mobile. very material assistance is expected from shipment of cotton to be made from Texas by your order.

The names of the vessels that have arrived from Texas at havana with cargoes of cotton exclusively on private account are the Alice, Susanna, Cormail, [?] Isabel, Harriet Lane, and, perhaps, others.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War.

CLINTON, LA., June 11, 1864.

General S. COOPER:

I can coney cipher or other telegrams for General E. K. Smith if sent to me at this place, to the care of Colonel J. S. Scott, who will transmit them before I cross the river if received here within three days.

S. B. BUCKNER,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Shreveport, La., june 11, 1864.

Colonel W. A. BROADWELL, Chief of Cotton Bureau, Houston, tex.:

COLONEL: In giving instructions to the officers impressing cotton two points were especially enjoined by myself, that State property