to have any control, directly or indirectly, over me or my regiment until a brigade was formed and he was commissioned to command it, intending to be perfectly independent until he was de facto and de jure my superior officer. The inducement he held out to me was that he and his friends could control a number of men and companies who would be all thrown into my regiment at once, and if no other forces were ever raised my regiment would be full. On these papers the Secretary of War gave him authority to raise two regiments, a battery, and squadron of cavalry exclusively within the enemy's lines. When I saw his authority I deemed it of no value, and supposed I would have no further trouble with him. He has never yet furnished one man of his raising to my command. I had men recruiting for me in Hardy and Hampshire, and about four week s ago I met him an told him of my prospects there. During my absence in the west he went to Hardy and induced three of my companies there to muster in under him, signing himself, "John Miller, commanding Northwest Line," and ordered them to Monterey. Yesterday I ordered them here, and since I commenced this letter they have arrived, swelling my forces to nine companies. They say they volunteered to join me originally and supposed Miller was mustering them in for me; but on looking at their papers I find my name does not appear, and that he mustered them in for himself. They will not stand it, and to-morrow I shall muster them unconditionally into my regiment and write Dr. Miller a letter, which I suppose will raise a row between us. If I had known Dr. Miller as well in June as I now do I would have seen him d-d before I should ever have given my consent to his getting any authority. All the men that have been enlisted I have raise, and I predict that all that are yet to join will be raised by me and through my agency. If the Government will send a competent officer here to take command of the whole force I shall most cheerfully act under him; but I have made up my mind that Dr. Miller never shall command me, and I shall so notify him. I have lost confidence so far in him that he cannot command me. If he insists upon applying for a commission as brigadier and gets the appointment I shall retire from the field; so will a large number of my officers. He is Yankee all over, and as such has no peculiar qualifications to command native Virginians.

I write you these facts merely to advise you of the cause of quarrel if you hear of one among us out here, and if my force ever reaches a size to justify a brigadier I want you to have one sent here that we can all serve under. I sent up no pretensions to it myself, but I am not willing to do all the work for a man, to say the least, with no better qualifications than my own. This is an unmercifully long letter, and has been written at odd times all day long.

With kind regards to Mrs. Russell, yours, truly,

J. D. IMBODEN,

P. S.-I wish you, Bennett, Robert Johnson, and Governor Johnson would write and address to the people of the northwest, and let me sow it broadcast through the country as I pass along.