troops for this district, if the plan I proposed should ultimately be adopted. The authority I asked for was to raise volunteer companies, battalions, or regiments, including men subject to conscription. These companies to be raised precisely as other volunteer companies had been raised under the act of Congress, offering to the men the same bounty and privileges that had been extended to all other volunteers that had been raised under that act. The officers to be commissioned by the President who should be presented with my approval. The announcement to be made to them that they were raised for the defense of this section of the country, and would not be removed unless the necessities of the public service absolutely demanded it. Being mustered into the service for the war, they would be subject to the order and control of the Government as all other troops. With this power I believed I could raise in the counties in my district, including the counties of Alabama and Georgia lying on the navigable waters of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, all the troops that would be required fr the defense of this district if the Government would promptly arm and equip them. This was the proposition I thought I had submitted, and to which I regarded your telegraph of the 2nd instant s a favorable response. It appears, however, by your letter of the 30th ultimo that the extent of the power you intended to confer is the authority to raise troops under the act of Congress of October 13, 1862, authoriying "formation of volunteer companies for local defens." That act provides for the organization into companies of those who are willing to serve without pay or allowance, and it is proposed to allow those subject to conscription to join these comanies, with the distinct understanding that they are liable to be conscripted at any moment that it may be deemed advisable to do so. I must say to you in all candor that any attempt to raise troops uity will be a hopeless failure. That act was intended to give protection in cse of capture to a class of men who were able to serve the country without pay and did not wish to enlist in the regular servoce. To extend to them the rights and privileges of prisoners of war was evidently the object of the act. It was never intended to meet the cases of those whom we are now seeking to breing into the field. I will not, however, discuss that point, as I am sure that yon will see upon a moment's reflection jthat no effort made here under that act will be attended with any success.

If the plan I have attempted more fully to explain in this letter, or something like it, cannot be done it is useless to make further efforts to raise troops in this part of the country; but in the way proposed I still believe the required number of troops can be brought into the field within a reasonable period. I am aware that troops cannot be spared at this time from more important points, and it was for this reason that I suggested that new troops should be raised in the way proposed. I do not attach an undue importance to the territory within my command, and yet I think it is entitled to a more efficient defense than has heretofore been extended to it. In my letter of the 9th ultimo I presented some of the reasons of this opinion, and I think that opinion would be strengthened by a fuller consideration of the subject. At all events a sufficient number of troops should be placed here to hold an invading enemy in check until re-ebforcements could be had. I do not believe the enemy we have to deal with will be tempted into an invasion not otherwise intended by an increase in our means of defense. I have not found, in my experience with them, their anxiety for a fight stimulated