the next ten days, and will report upon their condition as soon thereafter as practicable. Regarding, however, the question of raising as promptly as possible the additional troops required for this service as of vital importance. I was unwilling to postpone this communication for that length of time. For that reason I make it at once, and to insure its reaching you I send it by Major Cobb, one of my staff. If you desire he can proceed to Richmond with any communication that you may desire to make them on the subject.

If practicable, I should like to obtain an answer by telegraph whenever the Government determines on the number of troops to be raised and the mode and manner of raising them.

It is important that the limits of my district in the States of Alabama and Georgia should be defined, and I request that it may be done as soon as possible.

I am, very respectfully, yours, &c.,

HOWELL COBB,

Brigadier-General, Commanding District of Middle Florida.

CHARLESTON, December 9, 1862.

General G. T. BEAUREGARD:

If I were to obtrude upon your attention a matter of personal interest which had already been decided I might be censured for my importunity, but the evident importance of the subject I hope will be a sufficient apology, and a conviction that there still remains unsaid and untried some things worthy of consideration encourages me to appeal to you again in reference to the boom obstruction.

When I reported to you the condition of this work, immediately after the wreck of it by the tide, I was entirely unprepared in the conception of it, under the influence of this new disaster, and was consequently wanting in confidence to hope for a renewed effort. Later reflection, however, rendered the subject more clear to me, and when notified by you that I would be called upon by the board of investigation to answer inquiries, I flattered myself that I would have an opportunity to give their result of my thoughts and information for what they were worth.

In this I was disappointed.

I cannot conceive of the absolute and final condemnation of a work because of any recognized difficulty while there is a probability or even a possibility of developing it ot the fullest extent ever anticipated without other means than those already allowed and approved for its execution. I cannot believe that it is good judgment to cant aside the results of long costly labor on the presumed insufficiency of means which it will cost but little to put to the test of experiment.

There is now in the dock a formidable chain, more than 2,200 yards in length, altogether unused, with flats, bayous, &c., ready for location. It wants only the anchors and mooring chains. In the channel there is at least 1,000 yards more. The construction of it was a great under taking, perhaps an unwise one, but it is done.

The tails which have been made in placing it may justly, when compared with the magnitude of the work, be regarded as experiments, the failure of which show what is required and conduce to ultimate success; but if these trials are considered as failures, involving the character of the work itself, let it be considered that the plan is vouched for by high authority and that its failure is for want of material. It is like an arch

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