for the immediate supply of the forces in Virginia and North Carolina any commissary stores you may have at command. From various causes, which Major Hoge will more fully explain, there is at present lamentable deficiency of provisions, especially of meat, for the supply of those forces, and there is imminent danger that unless unusual sources of supply can at once be commanded the armies on which the defense and safety of both States depend cannot be maintained in service. This is naturally the season of severest trail on the commmissariat, and several untoward circumstances concurring with the depreciation of our currency have materially enhanced the difficulties of that branch of service. Understanding that you had accumulated, both at home and in the islands, considerable stores of provisions, I do not hesistate relyin on your sagacity and patriotism to perceive and appreciate the emergency and its necessities to appeal to you to sell or leand to the Department all such stores as you can command. Major Hoge is fully authorized to arrange with you the terms of transfer, either as an accommodation or a sale, and I would earnestly request that you will view his proposition with favor and enter into some satisfactory arrangement with all practicable dispatch.

Very truly, yours,

JAMES A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War.

[42.]

JAMES A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War.

RICHMOND, VA., December 15, 1864.

His Excellency WILLIAM SMITH,

Governor of Virginia:

SIR: I have the honor to invite your attention to the inlcosed communication from the Secretary of War, and in compliance with his recommendation to request that you furnish to the Department 5,000 slaves to be employed for sixty days in laboring upon fortifications in the State of Virginia.

Very respectfully and truly, yours,

JE

[42.]

RICHMOND, VA., December 15, 1864.

General R. E. LEE,

Petersburg, Va.:

To meet your immediate necessity, the Secretary of the Navy has sent to the War Department from navy stores at Charlotte 1,500 barrels of salt pork and beef. The Secretary of War has ordered meat to be brought up from Wilmington. There has been criminal neglect in permitting blockade-runners at the port of Wilmington to come in with little or no freight, leaving army supplies at West India ports waiting for shipment.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

[42.]

RICHMOND, VA., December 23, 1864.

General B. BRAGG,

Wilmington, N. C.:

Forty thousand pounds of meat ordered from Raleigh to Wilmington. Arrivals by sea daily expected. Require subsistence officers to