are unwilling longer to assume such responsibilities or to sacrifice whatever reputation we may have by continuing indentified with roads so controlled. For eight months now we have labored night and day (with the halter of the Lincolnites around our necks and our lives and property in jeopardy) as good, true, and loyal citizens for the Confederate States, and do not consider that we are any the less loyal now in placing these responsibilities in your hands. The burnt bridges are in a very forward state of rebuilding, and will give others you may send here to take our places but little trouble to complete. We also advise you to send here good engine runners and machinists. Our men cannot be kept here much longer in present condition of things, feeling that htier lives are constantly in the hands of an inconsiderate and reckless soldiery.

Respectfully, yours,

C. WALLACE,

President East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad Company.

John R. BRANNER,

President East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad Company.

[7.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE. Numbers 256.
Richmond, December 5, 1861.

* * * * *

XI. Captain Joshua Morse will proceed with his company of volunteers from Memphis, Tenn., to Mobile, Ala., with as little delay as practicable, taking along the arms and accouterments of the company. He will report for duty to Colonel Buck, of whose Twenty-fourth Regiment Alabama Volunteers his company will form a part. The company arms will be repaired at Mobile or at Mount Vernon Arsenal, as may be most convenient.

By command of the Secretary of War:

John WITHERS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

[6.]

HEADQUARTERS,
Knoxville, December 5, 1861.

General A. S. JOHNSTON,

Commanding Second Division, Bowling Green, Ky.:

GENERAL: I am just in receipt of a dispatch from Honorable J. P. Benjamin, stating that all guns at the different points in the West are at your disposal. For six weeks I have labored unceasingly to have my command armed, and have in the time managed to procure only about 400 flint-lock muskets, rifles, and double- barrel shotguns. The insurrection oin this part of Tennessee demands a prompt and vigorous policy. I have the men, but no arms. All my armed force are now in Cocke County, where some 400 or 500 Unionists are in arms against the Government. An armed force is needed to disperse a like number of traitors in Hancock County, who are throwing up intrenchments three miles west of Sneedville, and are in communication with Kentucky. You can readily perceive the great need my command is in for arms. To some extent it is becoming somewhat demoralized, solely, too, from not having them. I have at Nashville, Pulaski, Murfreesborough, and Memphis some 2,000 rifles, sent to those places to be repaired, which, when finished, I will (if you should [furnish] others) turn over to you, or send those back which you may furnish me. If my troops could get