wanted at these points, and any risk is a necessary incident of our defense.

Most truly and respectfully, Your Excellency's obedient servant,

WM. M. SHANNON,

Agent of the State of South Carolina, &c.

SOUTH SANTEE, April 21, 1863.

His Excellency M. L. BONHAM, Governor, &c.:

MY DEAR SIR: While I am in Charleston, on my way home from Columbia, I met my neighbor, Dr. A. E. Gadsden, who told me that some 7 or 8 negroes that he had had there for some months in the public service had been without employment for a week or ten days because it was said there was nothing for them to do, and were at length discharged and sent home to him, yet notwithstanding this a notice is published that negroes will be called for from this district early in May. The fact stated by Dr. Gadsden will be generally known in this part of the country, and cannot fail to make the impression that the labor is not really wanted, and that the planters are harassed and their business interrupted for nothing. Most of the negroes on this river have been removed. A few of us, however, have kept ours at home, and are endeavoring to plant a crop, which we cannot do if our negroes are taken away in May. In the course of the winter a good many of them were employed in constructing a battery on North Santee, which has been a long time finished, but not a single gun has yet been mounted on it, and it does not seem that any will be, so that this, like all the rest of our work, is wasted. Under these circumstances I do not thing it likely that any negroes will be obtained here. The facts I have stated show that there must be some gross mismanagement on the part of the military authorities. I do not know that you can do anything to remedy the evil, but I think it right to bring it to your notice, as you may not otherwise be aware of it.

Very respectfully and truly, yours, &c.,

A. MAZYCK.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

Milledgeville, Ga., April 24, 1863.

Brigadier General H. W. MERCER, Savannah, Ga.:

DEAR SIR: I received your requisition for 1,500 negroes to labor on the additional works "projected for the defenses of Savannah for a period of not less than ninety days" only a day or two before the late meeting of the General Assembly, and submitted the question for the deliberation of the representatives of the people of this State. Soon after the commencement of the session the act of Congress entitled "An act to authorize and regulate the impressment of private property for the use of the Army and other purposes" was published in the newspapers.

The ninth section of this act declares:

Where slaves are impressed by the Confederate Government to labor on fortifications or other public works the impressment shall be made according to the rules and regulations prescribed in the laws of the States where they are impressed; and in the