WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,

Richmond, Va., March 24, 1862.

His Excellency JOHN GILL SHORTER,

Governor of Alabama, Montgomery, Ala.:

SIR: Your lettery of the 17th instant has been received. In reply, I regret exceedingly to inform you that the pressure of the enemy in Tennessee and North Carolina has exhausted the limited supply of arms in the possession of the Government.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEO. W. RANDOLPH,

Secretary of War.

[6.]

CORINTH, March 24, 1862.

Brigadier-General BRECKINBRIDGE,

Byrnsville:

The enemy advancing in some force on the road from Pittsburg to corinth. Cavalry advanced to Monterey, supported by some regimens infantry, three of four miles in their rear. Send out cavalry scouts on the Farmington road. If you have any information report it.*

H. P. BREWSTER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[10.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF MOBILE,
Mobile, Ala., March 25, 1862.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General, C. S. Army, Richmond, Va.:

GENERAL: I inclose with this a printed copy of my order proclaiming matrial law in this city and surrounding country. The order was issued in obedience to a telegram received yesterday from the Secretary of War. I received last evening and order from General Bragg directing me to turn over my command here to Colonel Powell and proceed to Corinth, Miss., and report to him for orders. General Bragg was not aware, perhaps, when he gave the order that Brigadier-General Butler, of the militia of this State, had been called with his brigade into service, and is now on duty here. His order to me admists of no delay, and I shall leave on the first train, leaving General Butler in command.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

SAM. JONES,

Brigadier-General.

[Inclosure.] GENERAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF MOBILE, Numbers 19. Mobile, March 24, 1862.

By the authority and in the name of the President of the Confederate States, matrial law is hereby proclaimed in the city and county of Mobile, in Baldwin County, Ala., and so much of Jackson County, Miss., as lies east of West Pascagoula River, and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is suspended within the limits above metnioned. The jurisdiction of the civil court wihtin these limits is suspended so

---------------

* For reply, see Breckinridge to Brewster, VOL. X, Part II, p. 363.

---------------