BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS,

Hopkinsville, Ky., December 7, 1861

Lieutenant Colonel W. W. MACKALL,

Assistant adjutant-General, Bowling Green:

COLONEL: I received an order this mornign from General Hardee by telegraph to attack the Federal forces marching toward Russellville. If there had been any such force they would have been attacked by me without waiting orders. The object of this communicationis to inquire as to my relative rank, and whose orders I am bound to obey. The rank of General Hardee and Buckner is so variously reputed in the papers of the day that I sometimes might be lead to suppose that one of them commanded the Army.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHAS. CLARK,

Commanding at Hopkinsville.

[7.]

C. S. ENGINEER OFFICE.

Nashville, Tenn., December 7, 1861.

Lieutenant Colonel W. W. MACKALL,

Adjutant-General, Hdqrs. West Dept., Bowling Green, Ky.:

SIR: For the information of the commanding general I have to report that the agents employed under the sanction of Governor Harris to engage the services of negroes from their masters to work on the intrenchments for defending the city of Nashville against land approach have failed to procure a force at all adequate to the magnitude of the work contemplated. In fact, the number of hands is insignificant, and the agents report that it will be impracticable to procure them at this time, as the negroes in the vicinity of this city are hired out until the end of this year and not now under the control of their masters. It is not probable, thereforfe, that any material prgoress can be mad ein the constructionof the proposed defenses during the present month unless other labor can be applied. It is to be feared, too, that the call for military service hast aken so large a proportion of the laboring classes from this community that it will be difficulty, if at all possible, to procure white laborers at any price that will be reasonable.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. F. GILMER.

Major and Chief Engineer, Western Department.

[7.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,

Richmond, December 8, 1861.

S. D. WEAKLEY, Esq.,

Tuscumbia, Ala.:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your favor of 22d* ultimo, in which you inform me of your purpose and that of the fellow-members of your committee to send 5,000 volunteers, armed with their own guns, to garrison the defenses and approbation, of General Pillow, and you request that instructions be sent to Mr. Dickson, as quartermaster, and Mr. Abernathy, as commissary, for the supply of transportation and subsistence for the troops thus to be levied. In reply, I

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*See VOL. VII, p. 692.

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