communicating with the enemy with impunity by means of boats and ottherwise. There were not less than four boats from different points on the river that communicateller dduring Sunday.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

F. L. DANCY.

[14.]

ORRDNANCE OFFICE,

Savannah, Ga., April 17, 1862.

Lieutenant Colonel J. GORGAS,

Chief of Orddnance, Richmond:

One messenger jusst arrived from Florida. About 150 barrels cannon powder will be here to-morrow; 7,500 rifles on the way-will be here in a week. Shall I divide the powder between Atlanta and Raleigh, as per your order? I ought to have a reserve near Savannah. Very little cannon powder here not at batteries.

RICHD. M. CUYLER,

Captain, Artillery and Ordnance.

[14.]

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, STATE OF FLORIDA,

Tallahassee, April 17, 1862.

General R. E. LEE:

SIR: Yours of the 8th of April* was received on yesterday, informing me o the appointment of General Finegan, upon the application of the Floridda delegation. Agreeably tto the constitution of the State, the governor is the commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the State and of the militia thereof. The military defenses of the State are intrusted to his judgment. Such being the fact and having to the best of fmy ability sustained the Administration of the Confederate Government by President Davis, whom I regard with admiration as a statesman and a soldier,, I confess that I was surprised, and not agreeably, at the appointment of General Finegan, upon the recommendation of the Florida delagation, in preference to Geneal Richard F. Floyd, recommended by me, and, if I have been correctly informed, the recommendation was sustained by Senator Baker, a Senator, and Mr. Dawkins, our Representative from East Floridda, the part of the State in which the Senator and Representative and General Floyd and General Finegan reside. General Floyd is about fifty years of age, the son of Genereal Floyd, who was favorably known in the war 1812-1815, is a native of Georgia, and but few gentlemen of the South are as well educaed or as well qualified to perform the dudties incumbent upon the brigadier-general in this military department, and the appointment of no other would have inspired more confidence, or been more satisfactory to the citizens of the State and the officers and soldiers of the Confederate service in the State. General Floyd, at a moment's notice, left his family and property on the Saint John's River, repaired to the command at Apalachiccola, and maintained the defense of that place, although informed the defenses of the Ssaint John's had been abandoned and his accomplished family of ladies and his entire property was lost. Suddenly he was reduced from opulence to poverty, and what is worse, exposed to injustice from the Government, to support which none has more courage and few as much

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*See VOL. VI, p. 429.

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