[Inclosure.]

HARRISONBURG, LA., August 25, 1864.

(Via Clinton and Mobile 31st.)

General B. BRAGG:

I would have been over four weeks ago but was positively forbidden by the department commander, General E. Kirby Smith.

R. TAYLOR,

Lieutenant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WEST LOUISIANA,
Alexandria, September 3, 1864.

Brigadier General W. R. BOGGS,

Chief of Staff, Shreveport, La.:

GENERAL: I received your communication with reference to the deserters from Walker's and Polignac's divisions suggesting that it might be well to offer at once a pardon to the offenders. After visiting the troops and conferring with the commanders, I am satisfied that such a course at present would destroy the discipline of the command. The cases were more flagrant than I thought or than you have been led to suppose, amounting in at least one instance to an open mutinous outbreak under arms, encouraged, as it is believed, by a few officers. The ringleaders are being tried. In the punishment awarded it will be proper to make a distinction between the captured and those who voluntarily surrendered, and I will make that distinction in acting upon the sentences.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. B. BUCKNER,

Major-General, Commanding.

RICHMOND, VA., September 15, 1864.

Honorable J. P. BENJAMIN:

After an examination of the correspondence between General E. Kirby Smith and Lieutenant General R. Taylor, on the subject of crossing troops from the District of Western Louisiana, as requested by you, at the instance of the President, I have the honor to submit the following statement relative to the command of those troops, and especially of Walker's division:

On the 31st of July General Smith wrote to Lieutenant-General Taylor on the subject, and used the following language: "I have left it optional with General Walker to resume the command of his old division or remain in this department."

On the 1st of August General Smith wrote to General Walker suggesting the propriety of his taking temporary command of the troops to aid in the crossing of them under General Taylor, but leaving this optional with him. Of this last letter (August 1) General Taylor received no copy-it was a letter from the department to the district commander.

On the 3rd of August General Walker was ordered from department headquarters to assume command of the District of Texas, New Mexico, &c. On the 8th or 9th of August Major-General Forney was ordered by General E. Kirby Smith to the command of Walker's division.