battery, I would respectfully represent to the commanding general that there is not in my command one artillery officer of experience whom I could place in command of it. If he should agree with me in reference to its importance, and could assign to the post an experienced officer, with men who had been under fire, or in whom the officer had confidence, it would a feeling of security which cannot be felt with so important a position in the hands of inexperienced officers and untried men.

Rock Bluff, about 30 miles below the junction of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, is the point selected by Captain Moreno for his second battery and obstructions. I think is the best point for a second battery, but do not propose to remove the present battery from ALUM Bluff until the important work at the Narrows has been completed. As soon, however, as that has been I will give prompt attention to the further defenses, not only of Apalachicola, but also of the Chattahooche and Flint Rivers.

Inclosed I send you a communication from the Georgia commissioners in reference to the obstructions inthe Narrows, accompanied by a letter from Captain Thigpin,* a detachment of whose lately visited the town of Apalachicola. On my recent visit I found that the mail communication between Apalachicola and the interior was regularly kept up. Through his means the enemy was enabled regularly and constantly to communicate not only with Florida, but Georgia and Alabama, and indeed the whole of the country. Newspapers from every part of the Confederate States were regularly carried to Apalachicola, which was in the virtual possession of the enemy, and a large portion of whose population was disloyal to our Government. The result was that the Abolition fleet received our newspapers as well as other informational regularly as our own citizens in any part of the country. Regarding this state of things as highly injurious to our cause, I gave notice to the mail contractor, from Ricco's Bluff, on the Apalachicola, to the town, that his contract was suspended, and that the mail would no longer be relieved to his carriers. I also directed the postmasters at Chattahoocehe and Ricco's Bluff to forward to me all letters addressed to Apalachicola and to detain in their officers all newspapers addressed to that point. I trust that this step will meet the approval of the commanding general. For the present I have stopped all communication with Apalachicola, and shall strictly enforce that policy, at least until our river defenses are completed. It will cause both inconvenience and injury to some loyal people in that vicinity, but in my judgment the public interest imperatively required it. I trust that in a short time the defenses of the river will in as complete condition as they can be made, though it is due to candor to say that my recent visit, with the information of the threatened movement of the enemy up the river, has not tended to confirm I felt in the success of these defenses when I addressed General Beauregard from Columbus, Ga. I was therefore greatly gratified to receive to-day the general's telegraph announcing his approval of my request to be authorized to raise additional troops for the defense of this district. I sincerely hope that the Government will not hesitate to grant the power asked for, and that, too, at an early day. Any movement of the enemy in this quarter will most likely be made in the winter months or early spring, and hence there is no time to lose in preparing to meet them.

During my absence I visited that portion of the district lying be

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* See of December 18, p. 724.

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