to be employed in the same way. I have no doubt that the quartermaster in whose gang they were employed will cause their hire to be duly remitted to their masters, or where their masters are on the side of the rebels, to their masters' agents at Key West.

That the act of Colonel Brown will be misrepresented in the florida press is certain. So will every other act of his and of other officers true to their allegiance. The press will be as little satisfied with his entrance to Fort Pickens as with the employment of negroes in unloading stores off Santa Rosa. As for compelling them to make war upon the whites, do we not read that negroes were employed in Charleston Harbor in building the batteries which burnt Fort Sumter on the day before these negroes embarked on the Atlantic at Tortugas? They went willingly. Thee was no time to consult their masters. All their masters' rights will be respected, and this though we are in a state of war, which these gentlemen seem not to realize, and which would have justified Colonel Brown, if he thought it necessary, in taking the masters themselves and compelling them to work for the success of his expedition, whose object was the relief and re-enforcement of a U. S. fortress beleaguered by Floridians. I have no idea that any of them will be placed under fire. If it should unfortunately happen, those who fire upon them are likely to be Floridians. These same negroes had been before twice transferred from Tortugas to another fortress, to be employed in the same way in embarking stores, and no objection was even made to it, but more negroes were offered to me for hire while in the very act. As for increasing the irritation in the State of Florida, nothing can do that; it cannot be made greater than it is already. The people seem to be thoroughly disloyal, either from passion, conviction, or fear of their neighbors.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

M. C. MEIGS,

Captain of Engineers.

[1.]

CINCINNATI, May 7, 1861.

General WINFIELD SCOTT:

Order of May 2 received.* Are provisions destined to seceded States-Mississippi, for example-to be allowed to pass Cairo? Are shipments of produce from Cincinnati to be permitted without reference to destination, even if for Southern army? Answer at once. Public sentiment here would be adversed, but think it can be controlled in a few days. What discretion have I am carrying out the order?

GEO. B. MCCLELLAN,

Major-General.

[4.]

To all who shall see these presents, greeting:

Know ye that, reposing special trust and confidence in the patriotism, valor, fidelity, and ability of Colonel Robert Anderson, U. S. Army, I have empowered him, and do hereby empower him to receive into the Army of the United States as many regiments of volunteer troops from the State of Kentucky and from the western part of the State of Virginia as shall be willing to engage in the service of the United States for the term of three years upon the terms and according to the plan proposed by the proclamation of May 3, 1861, and General Orders, Numbers 15, from the War Department, of May 4, 1861.

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*See p. 137.

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