[CHAP. XVII.

The court will report the facts, together with their opinion, for the information of the President.*

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By command of the Secretary of War:

JNO. WITHERS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. OF ALA. AND W. FLA., Numbers 31.
Mobile, Ala., February 10, 1862.

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II. Brigadier General L. P. Walker, P. A., is assigned to the command of the troops in North Alabama, whither he will immediately proceed and assume the control of military operations. He will call to his assistance all the resources of the country, with a view of preserving our important railroad connections, now threatened by the enemy.

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By command of Major-General Bragg:

FRANCIS S. PARKER, JR.,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

RICHMOND, February 11, 1862.

Gov. ISHAM G. HARRIS, Nashville:

I have sent 800 muskets to Looney's regiment, 800 more to Knoxville, 800 Enfield rifles to Chalmers' regiment, and 1,200 Enfield rifles to General A. S. Johnston, making 3,600 stand of arms.

I have also sent fine regiment to Decatur from Pensacola, and have ordered three Tennessee regiments and one Georgia regiment from Virginia to Knoxville.

I will try and send more arms. Do your best and we will spare no effort.

J. P. BENJAMIN,

Secretary of War.

GLADESVILLE, VA., February 11, 1862.

General S. COOPER,

Adjt. and Insp. General C. S. Army, Richmond, Va.:

GENERAL: I have reliable information that the enemy has moved several thousand men (estimated at 6,000 to 7,000) to Piketon within a few days past. He is moving supplies for sixty to seventy-five days by boat up the Sandy to same point for a very large force. It is supposed he has 6,000 men in Piketon by this time. Forage for horses, wagons, harness, shelled corn, and oats, hay, &c., are all brought forward, and he has ordered 50 flat-boats to be built so as to transport by water when the tide in the Sandy abates.

One of my information is from Louisville; the other from Prestonburg. The former has two sons in Colonel Williams' regiment; the latter is said by his acquaintances to be very reliable. They say six or seven steamers of larger size than usually ply on the Sandy are daily running up to Prestonburg and Piketon, and that the officer commanding at Pintsville says "he is complained of as being slow on his line, but

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*Report not found.

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