HEADDQUARTERS PROVISIONAL FORCES, DEPARTMENT OF EAST AND MIDDLE FLORIDA,

Tallahassee, February 10, 1862.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General C. S. Army, Richmond, Va.:

GENERAL: By a recent ordinance of the convention of Florida the State troops now at Apalachicola, composed of the following companies, viz, seven of infantry, one of artillery, and one of cavalry, numbering about 600 men, under the command of a brigadier-general, with his staff, are ordered to be discharged from the State service. It is my intintion to muster all of the above troops, if pissible, into the Confederate service, either as companies or as a battalion. Governor Milton informs me, however, that he ahs received a communication from the Secretary of War to the effect that the whole organization as stated above would be received by him. As I have received no authority of this nature, and as it is entirely discordant with the usages of the service up to this time, I must ask for information and isntruction on the subject. It may be well to mention here that Apalachicola is a flourishing town of about 3,000 inhabitants, at the mouth of the Apalachicola River, and is the largest exporting and importing port in Florida, and that the secure defense of this post and the entrance of this river is no less of vital importance to this town as it is to the plantations in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia which border the banks of the Apalachicola and its trubutaries, the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, as high up as the town of Columbus, Ga. This latter town being of treat value, as I have been informed, also, to the Confederacy, in a manufacturing point of view, I consider it important, therefore, to have a large force stationed at Apalachicola. I respectfully request that I may have an answer to this sent to me by telegraph.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. H. TRAPIER,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

[6.]

HEADQUARTERS PROVISIONAL FORCES, DEPARTMENT OF EAST AND MIDDLE FLORIDA,
Tallahassee, February 11, 1862.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.:

GENERAL: I must in justice to myself urge upon the Department of War, and I do so most respectfully, the propriety of informing me in a written communication whether or not the reasons assigned by me of making my headquarters at this place are deemed by the Department sufficient and satisfactory. It cannot, I presume, be regarded amiss for me to remark here that the selection of this pointt was based upon the suppostion that tI was expected to look to the defense of the important points in the middle as well as those in the eastern section of the department. If in this supposition I am incorrect, and it is the design of the Department that the eastern portion alone of the State shall occupy my attention, then no one can be more decidedly of opinion than myself that this is not the proper place for headquarters. The present designation to my military district implies that I am responsible equally for the defense of Middle and East Florida, and to this responsibility I