up to re-enforce you from New Orleans. Other re-enforcements have been sent to General Johnston and to Eastern Tennessee.

J. P. BENJAMIN.

[FEBRUARY 10, 1862.-For Bragg to Benjamin, in reference to re-enforcement for General A. S. Johnson, see Series I, Vol. VI, p. 424.]

NASHVILLE, February 10, 1862.

Honorable J. P. BENJAMIN:

We need for immediate service 10,000 muskets, with bayonets,if possible to furnish them. The man can be put in the field instantly; without them Nashville is in great danger.

ISHAM G. HARRIS,

Governor.

FORT DONELSON, February 10, 1862.

Colonel W. W. MACKALL,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Bowling Green, Ky.:

The attack expected here is a combined one; gunboats by water and a land force in the rear.

The greatest danger, in my opinion, is from the gunboats, which appear to be well protected from our shot. The effect of our shot at Fort Henry was not sufficient to disable them, or any one of them, so far as I have been able to ascertain. This was due, I think, in a great measure, to the want of skill in the man who served the guns, and not to the invulnerability of the boats themselves.

I saw five gunboats during the attack on Fort Henry, each firing three heavy guns from ports in the bow. It has been reported from various sources that there were seven boats in the Tennessee River at the time of the attack. Only five were engaged at any one time, in my opinion.

With the preparations that are now being made here I feel much confidence that we can make a successful resistance against a land attack. The attack by water will be more difficult to meet; still I hope for success here also.

The force landed by the enemy on the right bank of the Tennessee River is probably a large one, consisting in part of forces driven from Cairo, Fort Holt, and Birg's Point by high water. General Pilow has information to this effect from a person recently from Smithland. I do not think it practicable to establish a boom across the Cumberland River during the freshest that now exists.

If Captain Nocquet has no employment for Captain Cox, he may be discharged. I think he might well be employed assisting Mr. Crump in completing the map of Bowling Green and the vicinity.

We are making herculean efforts to strengthen our parapets-making narrow embrasures with sand bags, and if we can have ten days we hope to make bomb-proofs over the guns.

J. F. GILMER,

Major, and Chief Engineer Western Department.