the deficiency of arms referred to. General Withers has been authorized by the Secretary to aid Lieutenant-Colonel Loomis in completing his regiment.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. H. CHILTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[6.]

RICHMOND, December 4, 1861.

General POLK,

Columbus, Ky.:

GENERAL: I suppose my letters to Lieutenant Brown (written, one about the 3d, the other some two weeks ago) on submarine batteries have miscarried. Assuming that you would want them for the river at Columbus, I have been pushing them forward. I shall have by the end of this week six all ready to be filled and planted. An unexpected run of good luck has enabled me to do this. I have twenty-five under way, all of which, if, in spite of the drift-wood and other habits of the Mississippi, they can be made to answer for that river, are at your service. I wrote Brown a full description of them. He will know how to plant them. If I can find time, when they are ready I should like to come myself and see that everyting is right. The tanks, such as I have already sent to Memphis as samples for Lieutenant Brown, will, I fear, have to go as freight through Georgia, on account of our burnt bridges. Still, I suppose that these tanks may be sent from here sooner than they can be made in Memphis. At any rate, I shall hurry them on with all dispatch unless you direct otherwise.

Yours, very truly,

M. F. MAURY.

[7.]

KNOXVILLE, EAST TENN., December 4, 1861.

Honorable J. P. BENJAMIN

Secretary of War, Richmond:

DEAR SIR: With great respect for you individually, and an earnest desire to serve the Confederate States to the extent of our ability with our lives and our property, we notify you that unless certain unbearable evils are at once corrected we shall cease to run any trains on the roads of which we are the presidents on and after the 15th instant. We are forced to this position from considerations entirely unavoidable on our part. The military, influenced by no more patriotism than ourselves, have for days past, and without the least necessity for so doing taken possession of the running of our trains, ordering them out in the face of incoming trains, thereby endangering the lives of all on board and hazarding the property of individuals and the company. Moreover, the Quartermaster-General has assumed to dictate tariffs for Government freights at such ruinous rates as will in a short time break down every railroad company in the south. Without boring you with a detail of the multitutde of good and sufficient reasons for the course we adopt, we will just say that while we are held responsible for the lives and property in our charge in the management of these roads, the movements of the trains and the control of the finances of the company are orderfed by men incompetent, irresponsible, and reckless-maybe very good military men, but certainly very bad railroad managers. We