PRESTONBURG, FLOYD COUNTY, KY.,

October 2, 1861.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President of the Confederate States of America:

SIR: Our Legislature has betrayed us. We have marched to this point on account of its strategic importance with 1,000 men. Hundreds are gathering around our standard daily. We can have 5,000 men here in two weeks. We would most respectfully petition Your Excellency to send us immediately some experienced military man to command us, and place us upon a footing to make ourselves available in furthering the cause of civil freedom, in which we have enlisted, and to which we pledge our lives and our sacred honor. Other information respecting our wants and our statistics will be furnished by the commissioneres who are the bearers of this petition.

BEN. DESHA,

Captain of Light Infantry Company (armed).

E. F. CLAY,

Captain of Cavalry Company (armed).

JAMES M. THOMAS,

Captain Mounted Rifles (forty minies, with equipment).

T. R. WORSHAM,

Infantry (unarmed).

H. C. SWANGO,

Infantry (unarmed).

A. J. MAY,

Captain Morgan Guards, Infantry (unarmed).

JESSE MEEK,

Infantry (unarmed).

G. W. CONNOR,

Captain, Infantry (unarmed).

G. W. EWING,

Captain, Infantry (unarmed).

JOHN W. SPARKS,

Captain, Infantry (unarmed).

JOHN SHAWHAN.

[4.]

MOBILE, October 3, 1861.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President of the Confederate State of America:

I address you in behalf of the Mobile and Great Northern Railroad Company. As you are aware of the location of this road, and the rapid communication it would afford if completed below this place and Pensacola and all parts of the Confederacy east of this, it is unnecessary for me to say anything about its being a military necessity. I inclose a note from the president of the company, Colonel W. D. Dunn, whose statements are to be entirely relied on, from which it appears that only $15,000 in cash is required to complete this road by the 10th to the 15th of November, and without which he will not be able to go on with the work, having entirely exhausted all the means of the company. In addition to this $15,000 he asks the extension of $10,000 due the Government for duties on iron. In view of the important military events that are likely to take place on our Gulf coast this winter, would it not be well for the Government to aid the company to complete their road? The amount to be advanced would soon be repaid by transportation.