made up as follows, viz: Twenty-seventh Virginia Battalion of Cavalry, First Kentucky Mounted Rifles, Second Kentucky Mounted Rifels, Sixth Confederate [Battalion], Seventh Confederate [Battalion]. By order of General Longstreet, hereinbefore referred to, Hodge's brigade was broken up and distributed among two other cavalry brigades then in this department, assigning the Twenty-seventh Virginia Battalion to William E. Jones' (now Johnson') brigade and the Sixth and Seventh Confederate Cavalry and First and Second Kentucky Mounted Rifles to Williams' (now Giltner's) brigade. I find the Seventh Confederate Cavalry now detached and not brigaded. This, then, only leaves Brigadier-General Cosby with a brigade at present made up of First Kentucky Battalion, Second Kentucky Battalion, Sixth Confederate Battalion, numbering, total present, 307. The Twenty-seventh Virginia Battalion is now in the Valley of Virginia, and is very much reduced. The Thirty-fourth Virginia Battalion is still in this department, and is in better condition as to discipline and numbers than any other command in it. This last battalion was originally in Marshall's brigade, which was broken up and distributed among various commands, part of it being now in the Southern army, but this battalion, as I am informed, has never since been regularly and formally assigned to any other brigade, although it, too, is claimed by Brigadier General Bradley Johnson. Both the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-fourth Battalions were raised principally in the extreme southwestern portion of this State, near the Kentucky line, and would very properly be associated with Kentucky troops. I repeat that, according to my understanding of military law and the regulations, General Longstreet had no right to change the organization of brigades, without the order of the War Department, and I take it that there was no such order, or, needed, knowledge that these changes had been made, as the War Department ordered General Cosby to the command of the brigade formerly commanded by General Hodge. General Cosby is represented to me as an efficient and experienced officer, and will manage his brigade well. I, therefore, respectfully and earnestly ask that I may be authorized to assign permanently to Cosby's brigade the Thirty-fourth Virginia Battalion (now in this department, but claimed by General Bradley Johnson) and the Seventh Confederate Battalion (also here and unattached), and that an order may be issued by the War Department directing the return of the Twenty-seventh Virginia Battalion to this department and its re assignment to Cosby's brigade, which will make the organization of Cosby's brigade the same as when commanded by General Hodge, with the addition thereto of the Thirty-fourth Virginia Battalion, and it will then be composed as follows: Twenty-seventh Virginia Battalion of Cavalry, First Battalion of Kentucky Mounted Rifles, Second Battalion of Kentucky Mounted Rifles, Sixth Confederate Battalion of Cavalry, which would give a brigade of about 1,000 men. This arrangement would leave a brigade t Brigadier General Bradley T. Johnson of Eighth Virginia Regiment of Cavalry, Twenty-first Virginia Regiment of Cavalry, Thirty-sixth Virginia Battalion of Cavalry, Thirty-seventh Virginia Battalion of Cavalry, besides the Maryland troops now with him.

I hope that orders may be issued in conformity with these suggestions, producing, as they will, much more complete organizations in this department and order and efficiency, and returning the command nearly to their original condition before they were disturbed by the then commander of the troops without the order of the War Department. Something must be done in order to produce system and order here, and it