on the defensive. The pressent dividing line between Departments 1 and 2 is exceedingly inconvenient. The only communication for me east or west passes through General Van Dorn's comand.

BRAXTON BRAGG,

General, Commanding.

[17.]

JACKSON, June 25, 1862.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.:

I have been relieved by General Van Dorn. Have no orders. Would prefer to be sent to the field of immeditate action. Will I be allowed a change of position to put an end to unfounded popular clamors!

M. LOVELL.

[15.]

GRENADA, MISS., June 30, 1862.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President of the Confederate States, Richmond, Va.:

SIR: I take the liberty (prompted by my god will to our cause) to draw your attention to a few facts in regard to the partisan rengers which you are now authorizing to be arised, which I hope you will to excuse, and that they may also be useful to you. The condition of the State of Missouri last summer made nearly all of our proceedings tincture of the partisan ranger, for we had to fob both furiend and foe, and therfore I had an opoportunity to judge of the effects of the system in its different lightas. I did not find one man in a thousand fit to conduct a force into the Union coutnies, and not one soldire in a hundred who could be trusted in such a party, and I am sorry to see that the persons who are raising these corps do not understand the true object of the act of Congress or the true material with which sucess is to be gained. The proper material is that out of which our pioneers are made, the men whobrave the hardships and dangers of the frontier to better their condition, m and the brave and chaivalrous young men who go with them for the danger's and excitement's sake- the bravery, endureance, and object of the gold digger, the mountaineer, and the explorer, and not the bravery that dares the halter to steal a horse, or your knife, to robe your pocket. In your appointement of officers you have certainly had these objetes in view, for your selections give eveidence of it, but some of them and the people at large do not look upon the matter in the proper light, and those that I have seen most anxious to join have been induced to believe that they are to be a band of licensed robbers, and are not the men to care whether it be friend or foe they rob. We lost many friends and irritated many lukewarm Union men in Missouri, and I have seen it already commenced in Tennessee and Mississippi, and therefore I feel it my duty to draw your attention to the facts, so that proper orders and regulations may issue form headquarters to defiene clearly the extent of their provileges; for although the law says distinctly that they are subject to the unless and regulations, yet they think, and the general impression is, that they are intended for detached service entirely, and will be allowed to raom and do as they please. Do not understand me to say the officers think these things, but it is the general impression with a large class of the men, who will do us more harm than good if they are not set right. Ihave had several difficulties with htese "free lances" already on points of discipline,