WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Richmond, Va., August 12, 1863.

General JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON,

Marton, Miss.:

GENERAL: The limits of your department, on the east and north, seem settled by Special Orders, copies of which are herein inclosed;* but as you request a more explicit statement defining them, I reply by letter. It is contemplated that your command should embrace the country west of the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee Rivers, and of the Alabama and Georgia State line, until it strikes the southeastern corner of Calhoun County,in the former State; thence along the southern line of the following tier of counties in Alabama, to wit: Calhoun, Saint Calir, Blount, Morgan, Lawrence, and Franklin; thence along the Alabama and Mississippi State line to the Tennessee River, and along that river to its confluence with the Ohio River.

The counties named above, and all the country north of them, come within the limits of General Bragg's department.

Very respectfully, &c.,

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF TENNESSEE,
Chattanooga, August 15, 1863.

General JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON,

Commanding, &c.:

GENERAL: I inclose for your consideration a paper from General Buckner, with indorsements, proposing a transfer of troops with you. In the general object I fully concur, and shall be happy to carry it out if you can give in exchange men who are not so near their home as to facilitate desertion. There are other troops in this army I should like to dispose of in a similar way. The exchange of the Kentucky troops I should consider very bad policy. Last year we lost a large portion of them here, and to afford them the same opportunity again start to you, at once, any number you may designate.

All is quiet in our front.

I am, general, very truly, yours,

BRAXTON BRAGG.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE,
Knoxville, July 31, 1863.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond:

GENERAL: I have several regiments in my command composed of men from East Tennessee and the mountains of North Carolina. Their effective strength is about 2,400. Desertions from them are numerous, on account of their proximity to their home,s and arrests infrequent in consequence of the the difficult country to which they can retreat. The Governor of North Carolina has suggested that the regiments from that

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*See Special Orders, Numbers 176, July 25, p. 931.

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