His Excellency Thomas Carney, Governor of Kansas, on the subject of the recruiting service in this State.

I presented to the Governor a copy of your letter and assured him that it was the desire of this Bureau to co-operate fully with the State authorities in filling the quota of the State, and invited any suggestions he might deem it proper to make.

I found by my conversation with Governor Carney that he has very little knowledge of the details of the recruiting service. The adjutant-general's office of the State is at Topeka, the State capital, sixty miles distant, without railroad or telegraphic communication. Governor Carney being at the head of a large mercantile house in this city, and deeply engaged in speculation and Government contracts, does not visit Topeka more often than once a month and frequently at longer intervals.

The adjutant-general's office is a jumble of confusion, and is more noted for what it does not than what it does contain. For instance, the adjutant-general is as yet unable to furnish me with any data of the number of men enlisted under the auspices of the State authorities, and hence I am unable to comply with instructions from your office requiring me to furnish the number of recruits enlisted in this State from week to week, and to obtain other necessary information. This general looseness pervades the conduct of affairs in the executive office, and is a great impediment to the correct transaction of official business.

Under date of November 27, 1863, Governor Carney writes you, in reply to your letter of November 10, a copy of his reply being furnished for my information. This reply contains the substance of his requests and suggestions at my personal interview with him.

He asks "that no attempt for the present be made by the provost- marshals of this State at recruiting for old or new organizations." In support of this request he assigns the following reasons:

First. That he has "just completed the Fifteenth Regiment."

Second. That "the Sixteenth is now over half full, and in a few days will be filled."

Third. That he has "raised companies for the Second, Sixth, Ninth, and Fourteenth, putting them at the minimum strength."

The request of Governor Carney that no attempt for the present be made by provost-marshals of this State at recruiting for old or new organizations should insure, in my judgment, the granting of his request, providing the statements upon which his reasons are based are correct. This, however, is not the case, as will be seen by the facts I deem it my duty to plainly state in the same order I have indicated in the narration of the aforesaid reasons of the Governor.

First. It is true that the organization of the Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry has been completed, and is at least up the minimum strength.

This regiment was raised by Colonel C. R. Jennison on authority received from Governor Carney. Many of the men were drawn from the State of Missouri, and enlisted by recruiting officers stationed at points along the river and eastern border of the State of Kansas. The whole was controlled by Colonel Jennison, who received the commissions for officers from the Governor signed in blank, and filled them with the names of such persons as he saw fit. The regiment was raised very rapidly, and practically outside of the efforts or supervision of the Governor of Kansas.

Second. Governor Carney stated to me, and also states in his letter of November 27, that the Sixteenth Regiment is now over half full. After my interview with the Governor, I called on Lieutenant J. R.