Today in History:

348 Series I Volume LIII- Serial 111 - Supplements

Page 348 S. C., S. GA., MID & E. FLA., & WEST. N. C. Chapter LXV.

and Representatives of this State in Congress for the appointment of brigadier-general, and believing from his gallant and skillful management of troops in several battles, from his general intelligence and fixed habits of sobriety and industry, that he is entitled to promotion, I respectfully recommend that you will appoint him brigadier-general and assign him to the command of this district.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully,

JOHN MILTON,

Governor of Florida.

[First indorsement.]

General Bragg for remarks.

J. D.

[Second indorsement.]


HEADQUARTERS ARMIES CONFEDERATE STATES, May 30, 1864.

Respectfully returned to His Excellency the President.

In the present condition of affairs in Florida I should not consider it necessary to call out the reserves further than to organize and instruct them. It would probably be most prudent, however, to refer the subject to Major General Patton Anderson, commanding there, for his advice. There being no brigade vacant, I do not see the power of the President to appoint a general to command a district.

BRAXTON BRAGG,
General.

[Third indorsement.]

MAY 30, 1864.

Respectfully refereed to Major-General Anderson for report and suggestions.

JEFF'N DAVIS.

[Sub-inclosure No. 1.]


HEADQUARTERS COMMANDANT OF CONSCRIPTION, Tallahassee, May 7, 1864.

Major C. B. DUFFIELD,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Bureau of Conscription, Richmond:

MAJOR: I would respectfully represent to the colonel superintending certain facts which, in my opinion, render it impolitic to call the troops of the reserve corps in this State into the field except when absolutely necessary for the public safety. In laying this matter before Colonel Preston I would ask him to give it not only the consideration due to it as an official communication, but also as coming from a citizen of the State who is acquainted with its wants. A glance at the map will show a State with its extremities nearly 700 miles apart, with a population scarcely more than is needed to entitle it to one Representative in Congress, most of its surface sterile, supporting a sparse population which before the war was supported partly from foreign trade in lumber, &c. This country has but little slave population, and is cut off from supplies from richer countries by distance, and must, therefore, produce its own supplies. The War Department will, I think, recognize the fact that a sterile and non-slave-holding country deprived of the labor of its men from sixteen to fifty could not exist long. This is virtually the cease in a large portion of Florida, especially East and South Florida. Besides my own observations on the subject I have the report of Major Daniels, who will also bring this major before you, and numerous memorials from all parts. The necessity to make a crop, and that these men under all ordinary circumstances should


Page 348 S. C., S. GA., MID & E. FLA., & WEST. N. C. Chapter LXV.