North Alabama. Perhaps it would be best to wait on the Secretary of War at once and advise him of the great error about to be committed, which may lose to us all the advantages which might be repeated from the evacuation of Corinth by opening to the enemy any road which they may choose to travel to our public works in Central Alabama. Since the letter was written to General Wheeler dispatches have been received by General Roddey showing the cause of General Wheeler's anxiety. On the 26th instant some infantry and mounted men (mostly infantry) crossed at Larkin's Ferry, eighteen miles above Guntersville, and moved to Wakefield, ten miles east of Guntersville, and returned to the landing on the 28th, probably to recross. When the precise facts are ascertained I predict that the movement was a feint to cause Roddey's force to move eastward, so that they may cross farther west for some purpose. On last Monday General Roddey crossed the Tennessee and drove them from their camp, capturing everything they had. Roddey's force is constantly increasing and amounts nearly to 4,000 men. The state of the war now demands that Congress should act promptly. What is requisite [is] to fill up the Army. The spring will open with the most active operations all along the line. I indulge the hope that by a stubborn resistance our people will ere long achieve their independence. The longer the contest shall continue the more the funds of the Federals will depreciate and the hope of conequest wane.

Your friend and servant,

JAMES E. SAUNDERS.

There is now a sa to Courtland.

[Sub-inclosure.]

ROCKY HILL,

Near Courtland, Ala., January 30, 1864.

Major General JOSEPH WHEELER:

DEAR SIR: I returned home last night, and after dark Brigadier-General Roddey passed by on his way to Tuscumbia to prepare his men for the march to Gadsden, in pursuance of your last order, which he showed me, with the letter accompanying it. I deeply regret the necessity for removing the cavalry from North Alabama, and with your permission will submit a few facts and thoughts connected with the policy of the movement. It will uncover the valley south of the Tennessee, embracing the corn lands in the valley proper, from Bear Creek to Flint River (above Decatur), and the secondary valleys about Russellville, Mount Hope, Moulton, and Danville (at the head of Flint). Corinth has been recently evacuated and is now in our hands, and the minds of the farmers were undergoing a healthy reaction, and many who had fledfrom their homes in the country nearet to that strong hold, from which the Federals have so long annoyed us, had determined to return to their plantations and raise provisions with new energy. But your late order will, when generally known, not only arrest this reaction, but cause an exodus of the slave population over the mountains into the heart of the Confederacy, already overcharged with consumers. The enemy will most certainly cross the river at several points, especially at Decatur; will fortify themselves and get a firm hold; for what is one regiment of men which you propose to leave here, subdivided into picketsk from the mouth of Bear Creek, by Florence, Bainbridge, Lamb's Ferry, Brown's Ferry (above where you forded the Tennessee River), Decatur, Fletcher's Ferry, and other ferries to