[Inclosure Numbers 1.]

Memorandum for President Davis, presented by Bishop Paine.

there are two military districts in the northern part of the State, the dividing line running through Ripley and New Albany north and south. General Chalmers, commanding the Western District, has headquarters at Panola; General Ruggles, the Eastern, headquarters Columbus. These generals were at the headquarters, and in the recent raid the enemy came through on dividing line. From New Albany to B[ea]r Creek the distance is sixty-five miles. This is the important line of defense, and upon it the cavalry force of this district should be now centered. Tupelo should be the place of the infantry. Roddey's headquarters have been Cherokee, thus giving the aid of the force defending the Tennessee Valley to our assistants. Of 960 men in Second Alabama only 350 are armed. In addition to Smith's regiment of State Troops (650 men) seven other copanies are reported by General Gholson, though not time yet to organize them fully, tolerably well mounted and armed with shotguns. Barteau's regiment (Scond Tennessee Cavalry, 540, 40 with horses) principally armed with shotguns. Major Inge has 250 armed with shotguns. Very few pistols or sabers in this district. Hewlett's Alabama battalion (250) needing horses and discipline.

[Inclosure Numbers 2.]

The committee appointed to consider the means for defense of the city of Columbus and valley of the Tombigbee make the following report: The district consideration of the committee was directed to the importance of the defense, as viewed in a national relation. Columbus is situated near the eastern boundary of the State, about midway of that fertile body of land running nearly parallel with the west bank of the Tombigbee River for a distance of 100 miles, and which from its cereal resources is capable of supplying provisions for the whole Confederate Army of the West. The city has been placed by experienced engineers, at great expense and labor, under complete and extensive military fortifications, and to suffer it, under the circumstances, by inadequate or inefficient defense, to fall into the hands of the enemy would only be placing in their power the means for our own destruction. The Mobile and Ohio Railroad, extending from the Gulf of Mexico into the enemy's lines on the north, immediately through the center of the valley of the Tombegbee, and passing within a short distance of Colbumus, would furnish means of transportation, and with a fortified city as a base of operations in the possession of the enemy, the State would be completely paralyzed, and virtually subjugated, so far as its available force or power could be used for its defense. The Federal gun-boats on the Mississippi have, in a great degree, closed the State on the west; the possession by the enemyof the Memphis and Cahrleston Railroad cuts off all communication on her northern boundary, and the military and naval occupancy of New Orleans and gulf of Mexico on the south leave open only her eastern boundary for military operations. It will be perceived at once that the eastern limits of the State in the enemy's power and control would isolate the State from the Confederacy, and place her under complete military subjugation. In addition to the national loss which would result from a conquest of the eastern limits of Mississippi and the probable military occupancy of the State, the loss and destruction of the provision crop of the valley of the Tombigbee would be more or less felt throughout the whole Confederacy. The