ing it. You will the sentinels to be doubled at night. A picket shall be stationed by day and night in advance of the fort, with orders to arrest all persons attempting to pass into our lines. Should a flag of truce present himself he shall not be allowed to proceed farther, and such intercourse as he may wish to have shall take place there. The picket stationed at night upon the railroad bridge shall upon an alarm from the march promptly to its support. I have instructed the ordnance officer to supply you with rockets and rocket-stands, to be used at the fort at Eagle Grove and at the draw-bridge for signals of alarm, which the sentinels at Fort Herbert shall promptly communicate to you by the officer of the day. The companies of Debray's regiment not engaged in scouting duty shall, under your orders, patrol actively at night on both flanks of Fort Hebert and harass the enemy at Galveston whenever you deem it expedient. Your judgment will suggest to you some other measures of precaution; none must be omitted, remote as the danger may appear. You will inform me of all modifications made by you in the plan of defense adopted.

I have the honor to be, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

X. B. DEBRAY,

Colonel, Comdg. Sub-Military District of Houston, Tex.

No. 3. Report of Col. Joseph J. Cook, Cook's Texas Regiment.

HEADQUARTERS,
Fort Hebert, Tex., October 9, 1862.

SIR: On the morning of the 4th the blockading fleet off the bar of Galveston consisted of eight vessels, four of which were armed steamers, one a mortar-boat, and all but one of them apparently of such draught as to admit of their crossing the bar.

At about 7 a.m. one of the steamers (the Harriet Lane) crossed the bar, flying a white flag, and when opposite Fort Point a shot from our battery was fired across her bow, and she immediately came to anchor. An officer soon after landed from the steamer in front of the battery and asked an interview with the commander of the post. Immediately upon being advised of this I repaired to Fort Point, and was informed by the officer who had landed that the commander of the fleet desired me to send out a messenger to receive a communication from him. Having no boat at the Point, I returned to the city and immediately dispatched a messenger in a boat, flying a white flag. The boat left the wharf about 1 p.m., and before she could be worked out to the Point the Harriet Lane weighed anchor, repassed the bar, and communicated with the fleet, and the four steamers, with the mortar-boat in tow, came in over the bar and up to about the position where the Harriet Lane had been brought to anchor. As soon as this movement was observed I started for Fort Point, but before I could reach there a shot was fired from our battery in front of the foremost of the advancing vessels-our flag-of-truce boat then being but a short distance off-when the enemy, disregarding their own white flag, immediately opened fire from all the vessels with about twenty guns on our battery, which consisted of but one gun, a 10-inch, and they continued to play upon it until the gun was struck by a shot and so disabled as to be unserviceable, and the