WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, D. C., May 1, 1862.

Major-General HALLECK,

Pittsburg Landing:

The order stopping recruiting was for the purpose of compelling returns from the respective Governors. They have now been received. It is the design of the Department to keep the force up to its present standard. You may therefore call upon the Governors of the respective States in your command for recruits to fill up the regiments now in the field. A general order authorizing such call in your department will be made to-day.*

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

ORDNANCE OFFICE,

Washington, May 3, 1862.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the reference to this office of a letter from the Secretary of State, inclosing one to him from Whitney Bros. & Co., of Calcutta, who propose to furnish saltpeter, delivered at New York in bond, for 7 1/2 cents a pound, and asking your views on the subject. In obedience to your instructions indorsed on said letter I have to report that we have at this time in store of our stock and recent purchases about 7,556,091 pounds of saltpeter. This will produce 94,445 barrels of powder. The amount of powder purchased by this department during the year 1861 is about 30,500 barrels. Taking this as a basis, we have on hand a sufficient quantity of saltpeter for carrying war on the present gigantic scale for a period of three years after the manufacturers of powder for Government shall have exhausted their means of supply. In view of these facts, and also of the want of sufficient and safe store- room for preserving this dangerous crude material, I am of the opinion that our present supply of saltpeter is ample and that no more should be purchased at this time: The letter from the Secretary of State with its inclosures is herewith returned.

Very respectfully, &c.,

JAS. W. RIPLEY,

Brigadier-General.

HDQRS. NORTHERN DISTRICT, DEPT. OF THE SOUTH,
Edisto, May 6, 1862.

JULES DE LA CROIX, Esq.,

U. S. Agent in Charge of Contrabands:

DEAR SIR: General Hunter, as he is authorized to do by the War Department, desires to organize in squads and companies, and perhaps into a regiment, a portion of the negroes that have escaped bondage and have come into our lines. He intends to have them paid, fed, and clothed, as well as drilled, in the same manner with our other troops, and would desire to receive for this purpose all able-bodied volunteers of proper age and fitness in other respects, and he would be glad to have you, as the principal agent under the Treasury Department on this island, examine the negroes to this end, laying the matter and the general's proposition fully before them.

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*See next, ante.

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