and to remedy the defects pointed out by you in the discipline and instruction of the mounted forcein Northeast Mississippi a well-trained and highly competent cavalry officer now under General Pemberton's command has been selected and, if desirable, will be sent to emobyd the mounted force, and he will, I hope, be able promptly to correct many of the defects which you have enumerated. The information received rendering it probale that General Van Dorn's command could not at this time be sent back to Mississippi, inquiry has been made whether General Forrest with his brigade could not be detached from t he ARmy of Tennessee and assigned to duty in Northern Mississippi. What else it may be possible for me to do depends upon the fluctuating tide of war. You can, however, assure our fellow-citizens for whom you act that their condition has not been overlooked, that their sufferings have been fully sympathized with, and that their necessities will be ever remembered. General Pemberton, commanding the department, has my full confidence, and will, I think, in the progress of events entirely justify the fiath with which he has been received by the people of Mississippi. Allow me to suggest the propriety of organizing all those who cannot take the field either as militia or Confederate troops for such defense of twons and bridges as may be afforded by men who are only able on an emergency to go out for a few hours or days to repel plundering and devastation by parties who may attempt raids upon their respective localities. Without such previous organization there will be confusion and delay, if not watn of concert, fatal to any effective action, and the troops must be either do dispersed as to destroy their strength or important places be exposed to destruction by small bands of mounted marauders. The freedom which which I have written to you and the minuteness with which I have stated facts in relation to the disposition of our troops will sufficiently indicate that this letter is confidential, except in so far as it may be needful to you to communicate its general tenor to those for whom you act.

Please offer my most friendly remembrance to the people of Northeastern Mississippi and accept for yourselves the best wishes of your friend and fellow-citizen,

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

[24.]

GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. FIRST CAVALRY CORPS, Numbers 12.
Spring Hill, May 9, 1863.

The brilliant and successful achievements of Lieutenant Colonel Thoas. G. Woodward of the First Brigade and his brave command, in their recent operations on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, elicit the grateful thanks of the brigadier-general commanding, andentitle them to the gratitude of their countrymen. With merely a handful of men, consisting of his own Kentucky regiment, Major White's Texas battalion, and one section of King's Missouri battery, he has in six weeks' time sunk two gun-boats, burned and sunk four armed transports, and crippled six others, killing 157 of the enemy, besides capturing and wounding a large number, and destroying a quarter of a million dollars' worth of property. He has accomplished this with only a loss to his command of 4 men killed and 5 wounded, and has thus added new and successive links to the cahin of glorious victories won by our arm of the service. The brigadier-general commanding deplores in common with this command the loss of their comrades, and especially