Abstract from monthly return of the Military District of Savannah, Ga., commanded by Brigadier General A. R. Lawton, for September, 1861

Present for

duty Artillery

Stations Offic Men Aggre Aggreg Heavy Field

ers gate ate

prese presen

nt t and

absent

Little Cumberland 3 48 63 71 5 -

Island

Sunbury, Ga. 3 54 57 59 - -

Sapello Island 6 177 200 208 5 -

Great Warsaw 3 70 75 79 5 -

Isle of Hope 2 42 44 60 - 6

Fort Pulaski 10 204 250 273 36 -

Thunderbolt 4 94 110 115 4 -

battery

Genesis Point 2 56 72 76 4 -

Oglethorpe 4 49 79 80 - 6

Barracks

Fort Screven 6 159 170 181 8 -

Saint Catharine's 2 67 72 91 2 -

Island

Camp Lawton, 16 242 273 305 - -

Savannah

Brunswick, Ga. 32 477 578 587 2 5

Tybee Island 40 856 973 1,056 2 -

South end Big 2 53 65 74 4 -

Cumberland Island

Blackbird Island 3 90 105 112 5 -

Grand total 138 2,738 3,186 3,427 82 17

APALACHICOLA, October 1, 1861.

Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR,

Richmond, Va.,:

SIR: The citizens of Apalachicola, under a deep sense of their present insecurity and anxiety for the safety and protection of their families and property, deem it their duty to address you on the subject of the defenses of their city. About the 1st upon application, the executive of our State ordered two 32-pounders (old guns) to be delivered to us, and these, at the expense of the citizens, were brought here and placed in battery in the most eligible position to command the several approaches to the town. At a later period a messenger was dispatched to Richmond, who succeeded in obtaining an additional number of guns, and it was deemed advisable that these should be placed in battery at Saint Vincent's Island, to command the entrance (West Pass) to our harbor, and the work was commenced and prosecuted with all the means and men that the city could command.

More recently a regiment in the Confederate service has been organized, five companies of which have been detailed to this point, and are now under command of Colonel Hopkins, who has established his headquarters at Saint Vincent's Island, removed all the troops to that point, dismantled the battery here, and issued a peremptory order for two rifled cannon, daily expected, and ordered siege guns, mounted for the use of the city, to be sent to him on arrival, thus monopolizing for that station every available means of defense, leaving to our company of volunteer artillery and two companies of undrilled infantry, with less than 100 invalids and exempts, the entire and sole protection of the city, and 1,500 women and children, whose natural protectors are most of them enlisted in the service, and without the means of communication, is with boats, and only requiring a heavy expenditure in their employ, but they are subject to capture at any moment, as they may easily be intercepted in their trips to and from the city to the island through a