tion by a mixed board of competent offices to determine whether it be best for the ends in view to continue to appropriate all the material and employ the mechanical labor of the country in the construction of vessels that are forced to play so unimportant and passive a part as that which Captain Tucker, C. S. Navy, their commander, officially declares to me must be theirs in the future as in the past.

The papers herewith will give the information necessary to show the Department under what circumstances the construction of the Lee torpedo ram was commenced.

The engineer in charge estimates that it will taken, say, $20,000 to pay off existing obligations for workmanship and material and to complete the vessel, with the exception of plating her.

The plating can only be furnished by the naval authorities, who have control of the rolling-mills and all suitable iron, and unless they will agree t divert from the vessels of the class they are building enough planting for the completion of the ram I may as well give up further hope.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

G. T. BEAUREGARD,

General, Commanding.

CHARLESTON, S. C., April 22, 1863.

Honorable W. L. YANCEY, Montgomery, Ala.:

DEAR SIR: Your favor of the 16th instant has been received. It but would afford me much pleasure to have your son on my staff as an aide, but unfortunately the position referred to has been promised to one of my young volunteer aides, Mr. Ferry, who was with me at Shiloh. I will, however, remember your application, and will be most happy to offer him the first vacancy which may occur on my personal staff.

I thank you for your congratulations on our success here in our fight of the 7th instant with the Yankee monitors. We are just beginning to find out that our victory was more brilliant than the had anticipated; but who could have believed that the struggle with those boasted marine monsters would have lasted only two and half hours? I also made my dispatch as moderate as I could to belie the accusation which I understood was being circulated at Richmond that I was disposed to overrate my successes. I am now glad that the result in this instance has been quite the reverse.

But the monitors are again near here, for what purpose nothing is yet positively known. Should they come over our bar again, however, I hope that, with the row-boat spar-torpedoes I have had prepared for their reception, not one of the monitors will ever get away again. By the by, I have suggested to the War and Navy Departments the propriety of using these boats for the defense of our rivers, such as the Mississippi, Tennessee, Cumberland, &c. A small flotilla of these boats (having a spar and torpedo at the end of it in front of each boat) properly located where the enemy's gunboats would have to stop for apart of the night on account of the difficulties of navigation or for the purpose of wooing, &c., would be irresistible. From the experiment we have made here I have no doubt that two of these row-boats, properly manned and officered, would be more than a match for a monitor in smooth water and a dark night. I sincerely hope that my advice may be adopted by the War and Navy Department.

With respect, I remain, yours, very truly,

G. T. BEAUREGARD.