leave wagon train at camp. Do not send men east [of] Tombigbee as ordered. Courier at Okolona will take this out at once.

N. B. FORREST,

Major-General.

[45.]

MACON, January 23, 1865.

Lieutenant General R. TAYLOR,

Tupelo:

GENERAL: Inclosed I send you copy of my letter to General Braandon, which will explain itself. These troops will all be lost to the service if General B. persists in conscribing and enrolling them. They should be transferred bodily. I think you can thus get 1,000 men; also, I inclose telegram of the President* and my reply. I will can the militia whenever it is desired by you.

Yours, very respectfully,

CHAS. CLARK,

Governor of Mississippi.

[Inclosure.]

MACON, January 23, 1865.

Brigadier General W. L. BRANDON,

Enterpise, Miss.:

GENERAL: I regret that I failed to meet General Taylor at the cars yesterday, as had been arranged. I was delayed by obsturctions in the road, and the cars left a few moments before I arrived. Of men between seventeen and fifty years of age there are a large number in every State and country. To withdraw these and send them to conscript camps and to the reserves will disorganize and destroy twenty companies of cavalry now mounted, armed, equipped, and in service at a time when their services are indispensable. Many, it is feared, leave their ranks and disappear who would be willing to be transferred with their commands to C. S. service. The remainder, boys under seventeen and men over fifty, would be without officers, as nearly all the officers are within the constript age. As you are aware, I offered to transfer these troops to C. S. service fully before this controversy arose. They have been anxious for the transfer, and are now, and there should be no difficulty in allowing it. The interest of the service imperatively requires it at the present juncture, instead of disorganization and loss at a time when men are so much needed. I therefore respectfully urge on you and the general commanding the department that immediate arrangements be made for their transfer in a body, subject to such reorganization, consolidation, &c., as other Confederate troops.

They are all (wihof two companies under Major Montgomery in Bolivar County) now in Confederate temporary service under orders of General Martin; two companies at Meridian under commandant of post. One of the companies under Major Montgomery was organized some two years ago, and the men enlisted before the 17th of February last are not subject to C. S. conscription under the decision of Judge Handy, but if they consent can also be transferred. The matter is so vital that I feel sure you will use all due caution in this matter and so arrange that the transfer can be made without interruption to the service of the men in the field. I some time since, at the request of the officers, appointed Captain W. S. Yerger

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* See VOL. XLV, Part II, p. 794.

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