extreme western counties of North Carolina are filled with tories. Pickens District, S. C., has now in it 170 deserters, and the mountain part of Greenville District about one-half that number. Beyond the Blue Ridge, Rabun County, ga., and Clay, macon, Cherokee, and the adjoining counties of North Carolina and East Tennessee are infested with deserters and persons who have taken to the mountains to avoid conscription. Many of these people are disloyal, and many from this county are actually in the service of the enemy. In fact there is a region of country here nearly sixty miles long by forty in width that is completely in possession of deserters and tories. They have been and are still plundering the farmers, not only stealing at night, but plundering in open day. Hundreds of horses have been stole, and to such an extent have the people suffered from their depredations that in many cases they are deprived of the means of cultivating or harvesting the crops of the present year. Many of these deserters and tories of this region roam over the country in armed bands and plunder with impunity. Their depredations have reached as far as fifteen or twenty miles on this side of the mountains, and unless an end is put to such acts this country will soon be entirely ruined. I would here remark that the stragglers from the several cavalry command which recently marched through Pickens and Greenville, moving from General Johnston's command to the Army of East Tennessee, committed inummersable outrages and acts of plunder, stealing hundreds of horses and openly seizing many others, doing more real damage to this region of the country than a like force of the enemy would possibly have done in the same time. This has been brought to the notice of the War Department.

Greenville, S. C., has in its immediate vicinity some twelve or more manufacturing establishments, including the State foundry and armory, cotton, factories, and paper-mills. In this respect it is perhaps the second down in importance in the State. Walhalla is the present terminus of the Blue Ridge Railroad. The depot at this place is constantly filled with large quantities of grain, salt, &c., shipped to this point to supply the surrounding country and Western North Carolina. The corps of these counties failed last season, and the whole country is in a famishing condition. Pickens District, with a population of 19,000, only 4,000 of whom are slaves, has furnished 3,500 troops to the army. To soil was principally cultivated by white laborers, and the want of a sufficient amount of labor to make bread is now seriously felt. There are in this district 1,000 persons now dependent on public charity to live, and 3,500 more soldiers' wives and children who are necessarily compelled to be partially supplied. The same is the case with the northern portion of Greenville, and much the same state of affairs exists in Anderson District. In view of the above facts, I would recommend that no more slaves should be taken from Pickens and one-half of Greenville to work on coast defenses during the crop season, and indeed none should be taken at any time from the three districts of Pickens, Greenville, and Anderson. The want of the necessary labor to cultivate the soil is so great in this mountain region that I am decidedly of opinion that all the men liable to conscription for State defense who are engaged in cultivating the soild be left at home. I recommend this because I am fully convinced that the distressed state of this country for the means of subsistence has been and will be the cause of many desertions from the army. An exaggerated account of the destitution of wife family often reaches the soldier in the field, and causes some of the more ignorant class to desert. The enemy have emissaries in the country, and induce these poor people of the mountains to believe that the Confederate cause and laws will ruin them.