of refuge for al non-combatants when it shall be necessary for that class to leave their homes; otherwise my embarrassments must be great.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

G. T. BEAUREGARD,

General, Commanding.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA,
Charleston, S. C., October 3, 1862.

Captain W. H. ECHOLS,

Chief Engineer:

The commanding general instructs me to direct as follows:

You will examine Hobcaw Bluffs, on Cooper River, in vicinity of Mount Pleasant, to determine whether or not it will afford a good position for a battery of five or six guns to command the channel of the river. It must also be ascertained whether that channel can be effectively obstructed with the means and appliances at our disposition. You will likewise make a thorough examination of both sides of Stono River, from Church Flats to Wappoo Cut, to ascertain whether the enemy can effect a passage of the Stono between those two points to turn the works in that vicinity.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

THOMAS JORDAN,

Chief of Staff.

CHARLESTON, S. C., October 3, 1862.

Honorable W. PORHCER MILES,

Member of Congress, Richmond, Va.:

MY DEAR COLONEL: Your favor of the 30th instant has just been received. I thank you for your exertions relative to those heavy guns ordered or called for the new batteries on west end of Sullivan's Island. I have lately made another call on the War Department for thirty or more heavy guns (10-inch and rifled 42-pounders and 32-pounders) as "urgent and indispensable," having reasons to believe that the boom now being laid might not answer in checking the passage of three or four iron-clads moving in echelon rapidly against it; hence the necessity of more heavy guns.

I will mail to-day or to-morrow my report of inspection of the harbor defenses of Charleston and Savannah, the "conclusions" of a board of officers (naval and army) relative to the present condition of those defenses of Charleston Harbor, and the estimate of Major-General Pemberton of the forces required for the defense of the Department of South Carolina and Georgia, which I have approved as the minimum which might be required, in my opinion, without having yet visited, however, all the districts of this department. I would be much pleased if the Department could show you those reports. Coming here so late in the season I have thought it advisable to have on record all the facts therein contained. General Pemberton seems to have done a great deal of work here, and he appears to have been very active, zealous, and intelligent. I regretted his leaving here, for with his knowledge of the country he could have been of much use to me, but he did not wish to remain with a restricted command.

I shall be pleased to have Brigadier-General Ripley for the command