Avery, inspector-general; Major J. W. Ratchford, adjutant-general's department; Major E. J. Ewing, assistant quartermaster; Major Isaac Schreck, acting commissary of subsistence; Captain T. Coleman, engineer.

Very respectfully,

D. H. HILL,

Major-General.

[35.]

RICHMOND, vA., March 31, 1864.

His Excellency M. L. BONHAM,

Columbia, S. C.:

GOVERNOR: I have already informed you by telegraph why your dispatch of the 26th was not sooner answered, and considering it inadvisable to transmit over the wires the information obtained in reference to the cavalry transferred from the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, I take the slower method of communicating by the mail I inclose a statement,* carefully prepared from the returns, showing the force of effective ordered away from General Beauregard's department, from which it will be seen that forty-four companies, numbering about 3,700 men, are ordered out of the department, leaving in it about 3,300 effective cavalry. The two regiments ordered to General Beauregard from Virginia number about 1,200 men, although not more than a fourth of them are mounted; but the dismounted men, in association with those who are mounted, can very well perform picket duty until they can be mounted themselves. General Beauregard will thus have about 4,500 cavalry, which is thought to be amply sufficient for the wants of his department, especially as the enemy has but little of this arm to oppose him. Your military experience will enable you readily to appreciate the difficulty of remounting the South Carolina cavalry when serving in Virginia, and no one sooner than yourself will respond to the claim which would depreciate their hard-earned reputation in the cavalry of Virginia. Your attentive observation of the military condition in all parts of the country renders it unnecessary that I should explain to you how much greater is the present need for a larger cavalry force in Northern Virginia than it is in South Carolina, but you would be surprised if I were to state numerically the relative strength of the cavalry of General Lee and of General Beauregard. Had you know it I am sure you would have instantly rejected any application for your interposition in connection with the orders which have been given for the transfer of cavalry to which this letter relates.

Very respectfully and truly, yours,

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

[35.]

RICHMOND, VA., March 31, 1864.

General G. T. BEAUREGARD,

Charleston, S. C.:

GENERAL: In reference to the subject-matter of the several papers touching your relations with the bureau of the Commissary General of Subsistence, the Secretary of War directs me to announce the rule that officers of the general staff when acting under the immediate orders of this department, or of any of the bureaus, although they may be located within the department or territorial limits of a commander in the

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*Not found.

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