mended to the President of the Confederate States that martial law be dispensed with in the State of South Carolina, except on the islands adjacent to the city of Charleston and for 1 mile around the military camps without the limits of said city. I have requested the President to issue his orders accordingly as soon as practicable.

J. C. PEMBERTON,

Major-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA,
Charleston, S. C., August 16, 1862.

Brigadier General JOHNSON HAGOOD,

Commanding, &c., Adams Run, S. C.:

GENERAL: I am directed by the major-general commanding to say he desires you should make a reconnaissance (using the Rebel Troop) up the country around Summerville, S. C. He has been informed that much disturbance and alarm are caused by gangs of runaway negroes, leagued with deserters in that neighborhood. The report of such reconnaissance will be made to these headquarters.

R. W. MEMMINGER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE,

Richmond, August 16, 1862.

Gov. FRANCIS W. PICKENS, Columbia, S. C.:

MY DEAR SIR: Your letter of the 10th instant* has been received. I have recently had a long interview with General Pemberton, and received a full exposition of his views relative to the defense of the coast of South Carolina. I find that his determination to hold the city of Charleston is as fixed as you could desire it to be, and that the measures he has adopted to that end are in a good state of progress and compromise to be effective. The obstructions to the harbor, so far as completed, have been tested with favorable results, and when finished would seem to be sufficient, in connection with proposed batteries and the forts, to prevent vessels from entering.

With respect to the questions concerning which there has been a difference of opinion, I have determined, as they are high problems of engineering, to send, at the earliest possible day, an officer of engineers, in whose experience and knowledge you will, I am sure, confide, to examine and report upon the points at issue. Meanwhile I have requested General Pemberton to have a conference with yourself, and, if it be desired, with the council, in order that he may communicate to you, as he has to me, the defensive arrangements that have been prepared and projected.

With every desire to gratify your wish for a change in the commander of the department the matter has been attended with much difficulty. General G. W. Smith, who was indicated, might have been spared for that command, but his physicians have pronounced that the climate would unfit him in his present state of health for duty on the coast of South Carolina. The general who would fulfill the requirements of the

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*Not found.

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