HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DISTRICT,
Savannah, September 20, 1861.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant-General, Richmond, Va.:

GENERAL: I beg to call the attention of the War Department to the arms and munitions on board the steamer Bermuda, from England, which entered this port two days since. Learning at first that these arms had been shipped on private account, I promptly made application to the consignees at Charleston, and find that most of them belonged already to the Confederate Government and the remainder had been sold by the consignees to the Confederate officers at Charleston. Under these cicrumstances I cannot too earnestly appeal to the Department to leave at least 3,000 of the small-arms and six of the rifled cannon, of different calibers, for the protection of this coast. I have now been authroized by the Secretary of War to organize such forces as may be necessary for the defense of the coast, but this State has no arms. The Confederate Government has furnished me none, and even the private arms along the coast are fast being exhausted. All available arms have been sent from Georgia to Virginia, and we are left in a deplorable condition. That this steamer should come to our very doors, freighted with arms and munitions and every comfort that the soldier needs, and then to see them all carried away without any assistance given here causes a feeling of great dissatisfaction and almost of despair. I again respectfully urge that this coast may be remembered in the distribution of arms.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. R. LAWTON,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

[6.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 165.
Richmond, September 28, 1861.

I. Brigadier General T. F. Drayton, Provisional Army, will report for duty to Brigadier-General Ripley, commanding at Charleston, S. C.

* * * *

By command of the Secretary of War:

John WITHERS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

[6.]

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DISTRICT,
Savannah, October 9, 1861.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant-General, Richmond, Va.:

GENERAL: I beg leave to recommend that another brigadier-general be ordered here, so hat I may place him in command of the lower portion of this coast, beyond the Altamaha River. The coast is so long and the communication between Savannah and that portion of it near the Florida line so difficult and expensive that it is all important, both for efficiency and economy to the Government, that a general officer should command at a central point within the limits indicated. I will add that the system of electing the field officers of regiments has proved very inconvenient here, and as the senior colonel must command at any post, I am unable to select the proper officer for the most