required. I have no doubt that the Secretary is desirous of doing all he can for this place in guns and troops, but I owe it to myself and to the country to have my records all right. I shall do the best fighting I can with the means at my command. The enemy may take this place, but its condition will be such that they will not be able to boast much of their sunccess. They are already in force in the Stono and the North Edisto, having seven monitors in the latter and their Alligator in the former (besides other vessels in both), so the trial of strength will soon commence. The War Department will now be able to determine whether this place or Wilmington is to be attacked. If Hooker has two to one against Lee, then I pity the former, for I defy him to handle with success over 100,000 men. McClellan or Rosecrans could not do it. We will have supplies in the country, but it would take a proper head to distribute them properly. There is abundance of rice in South Carolina, but it is not where it should be; corn ditto, &c. The same may be said of iron in the Confederate States for guns, &c.

You refer to the President's prejudices against certain officers preveting their promotion. I pity the country which has for its chief magistrate in times like these one who consults his preferences or dislikes in appointing to office men whose zeal, intelligence, and patriotism are acknowledged by all. The past, with regard to Price and others, ought to be a strong and prto him. Only one of those two brigades sent here from North Carolina was unrmed (Cooke's), but it lacked 528 rifles and accouterments, which were furnished to it here. I am not surprised t the veto of the bill increasing the two South Carolina artillery regiments, for the reason stated by you. I hope the staff bill (House) will be more for I consider it a very good one, and much needed at present. With regard to Chesut, I have and desire to say but little. I have been disappointed in him, and that is sufficient for my purposes. I have seen enough of history and seen

enough of men to be able to appreciate his professed friendship at

exactly what it is worth. I judge merely by their acts and not by their words. In passing from my staff to that of the President under the present circumstances, and in his remarks to Mr. Barnwell Rhett, last autumn in the South Carolina Senate, relative to the condition of the Army of the Potomac after the first battle of Manassas, he showed clearly that his heart is not with me, but with Chesnut alone. Well, let it be so. But I am forgetting that I have not time just now to write about my own offairs. The enemy of our invincible cause is in the Stono, only a few miles from here, and I must attend to him, and to him alone.

Hoping to see you here in the event of an attack, I remain, truly, your friend,

G. T. BEAUREGARD.

P. S.-Ask Mr. Yancey to show you (and to Villere, Orr, and other friends) that paper signed by Johnston, Smith, and myself. It is historical.

B.

[14.]

CHARLESTON, S. C., April 9, 1863.

Honorable CHARLES J. VILLERE,

Member of Congress, Richmond, Va.:

MY DEAR CHARLES: Your favor of the 5th is at hand. I see with pleasure that the artillery regiment bill has passed the Senate