EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

Milledgeville, Ga., February 25, 1861.

His Excellency EDWIN D. MORGAN,

Albany, N. Y.:

SIR: I informed you by my letter of the 8th instant of the seizure in the port of Savannah by my order of five vessels belonging to the citizens of New York, which I notified you would be held until the 200 muskets belonging to D. C. Hodgkins & Sons, citizens of this State, of which they had been robbed by the police of the city of New York, acting under authority, should be delivered to them or to G. B. Lamar, whom I appointed agent in New York to receive them. On the 9th day of this month I was informed by Mr. Lamar that the guns were at the command of their owners, and I immediately ordered the release of the ships. I afterward directed Mr. Lamar to have the guns shipped to Savannah, that they might be delivered to their owners. He informed me in reply that the superintendent ofity again refused to permit the guns to be shipped, and avowed his intention to make further seizures of a similar character. On the receipt of this information I ordered Colonel Jackson, of Savannah, to call out sufficient military force and renew the reprisals by the seizure of property belonging to New York or the citizens of that State, and to extend the seizures until he has doubted the amount of the original reprisals made by him. I now have the honor to inform Your Excellency that three vessels belonging to citizens of New York, to wit, ship Martha J. Ward, bark Adjuster, and brig Julia A. Hallock, have been seized, in obedience to my order, and are held in the port of Savannah as reprisals. Should I fail to receive official information form Your Excellency prior to the 25th of March next that the guns above mentioned have been delivered to their rightful owners or to G. B. Lamar, my agent, and that he has been permitted to shipp them from the port of New York to Savannah, I shall on that day the vessels above named to be sold in the city of Savannah to the highest bidder, and out of the proceeds of the sale I shall indemnity the injured citizens of this State against the loss sustained by them on account to the unjust and illegal seizure and detention of their property by the authorities of New York. That you may not fail to receive this notice, it will be sent to you at Albany in duplicate by different mails.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

JOSPEH E. BROWN.

[6.]

MONTGOMERY, ALA., February 27, 1861.

Captain GUSTAVUS W. SMITH,

Street Commissioner, New York, N. Y.:

MY DEAR CAPTAIN: May I request you to attend with the utmost dispatch adn secrecy to the following matter? Endeavor to buy in New York or elsewhere the apparatus for ten first-class Drummond lights, complete in every respect, with the instructions in detail for using them, to be sent through Adams Express to the collector at New Orleans and six to the once at Charleston, subject to the orders of the War Department of the Southern Confederaty. You will please write to them to that effect, inclosing also the said instructions, as well as to the Honorable L. P. Walker, Secretary of War, on whom you will draw for the payment of the whole. Be particular in the selection of said apparatus, and let the