WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,

Montgomery, April 17, 1861.

Colonel WILLIAM H. CHAMBERS,

Pensacola, Fla.:

SIR: The engagements of the Secretary of War are so pressing as to necessitate the transfer of a portion of his correspondence to other hands, and I am directed by him to say, in reply to your letter of the 15th instant, that no additional troops will be ordered for Pensacola unless circumstances shall cause alteration of the present plan of operations.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. J. HOOPER,

Private Secretary.

[1.]

KEY WEST, April 17, 1861.

His Excellency M. S. PERRY,

Governor of Florida, Tallahassee:

DEAR SIR: On the 13th the steamer Atlantic, from New York, with troops and horses, anchored in our outer harbor. The pilots were warned not to come near, and they refused to give her name. Colonel Harvey Brown, in command of the troops, and Captain M. C. Meigs, his chief engineer, came on shore from her and landed at Fort Taylor. They sent for those of the citizens in their confidence and conferred with them, taking care to prevent communication with others from the ship, and returned to the ship, taking with them a number of the troops stationed here, several large mortars, and a field battery. We learned of the appointments to the offices here. They are evidently made by the advice of the military men here-Major French, in command at Fort Taylor, postmaster-and that objectionable persons would be sent away. The steamer left during the night, and went to Tortugas the next day, as we learned on the 15th by the following message: Lieutenant Morton, engineer in charge of the construction of Fort Jefferson (Tortugas), sent his compliments to Mr. Filor by the captain of a transport schooner, Tortugas, and desired him to say to Mr. Filor "that a steamer had arrived there and taken on board materials, and that parties on board said steamer had ordered twenty or more of the slave laborers employed in that work and owned by citizens of this place to go on board the said steamer and carried them off that he, Lieutenant Morton, had nothing to do worth the carrying off of the negroes, and if anything happened to them the Government would be responsible for them." This message has been submitted to Mr. Filor. He says it is correct. the troops on board the ship are estimated at 500 or 600, and the horses seventy; the mortars are said to be 10-inch, and four in number. The troops taken from here are variously estimated; the best authority that the steamer is bound to Pensacola to re-enforce Pickens, but the secrecy and duplicity practiced makes me doubtful. I forgot to state that Captain Meigs gave out here that he was bound to Tortugas to strengthen that point in consequence of a British naval force expected on this coast, and the steamer was going to Texas.

The steam frigate Powhatan passed to the westward on the 14th. The steamer Illinois, from New York, arrived this morning and sailed immediately; a large number of troops on board; destination not known, the orders being sealed. We are living under great mortification, but we are satisfied that, under the existing circumstances, it is for the best that you did not take the forts or send arms here. Believing it