Eighth, will be hereafter known as the Fifth Battalion Alabama Volunteers.

* * * *

By command of the Secretary of War:

John WHITHER,

[17.] Assistant Adjutant-General.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

Montgomery, Ala., October 22, 1862.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President of the Confederate States of America:

MY DEAR SIR: I telegaphed you on the [18th] for the reason that I was seriously alarmed both for Pollard and Mobile, and because I was satisfied that there was and urgent necessity that no time should be lost sterngthening each of those points. I visited Mobile very recently for the propose of informing myself of the true condition of our defenses there, which I am sorry to say I found anything but satisfactory. I have no complaint to make of General Forney. Far from it. I regard him as a most valuable and efficient officer, and am satisfied that, with the means at his command, he has effected as much as any other man cold, and perhaps more; but his health is far from good, and he has had too much to do. His command is widely scattered, and with the exception of Colonel Powell, commanding at Fort Morgan, and Captain Du Barry, his chief of artillery, he has scarcely another officer upon whom he can fully rely. I do not intend to speak disparagingly. They are brave and gallant men, but they are volunteer officers, who, with some few exceptions, have never known and can scarcely comprehed what true discipline and effective organization are. The batteries along the bay are manned with troops organized as infantry, except one small battalion, and a very large marjority are fersh levies, ignorant of and indeed without the means of competent instruction in the service of heavy guns. With anything like a strong force, and such we may rest assured will be brought against it, I have but little doubt the city can be taken. The men at Forts Morgan and Gaines, if not driven from their guns, will find their ammunition expended in a proclonged contest, and although the batteries and obstructions along the bay would present more serious obstlaces if the guns were properly served, as it it I believe they can be passed. The the troops are mostly fresh, undisciplind in the particular service upon which the safety of the cityu mainly depends is bad enough; but in addition to all this, they are deficient in mumbers. I have the official returns before me, and find that the whole effective force about the city and along the bay shore batteries does not exceed 2,850. At Fort Morgan there are 660; at Fort Gaines, 460; on Perdido Bay, 170; at Pascagoula, 70, and along the coast between Pascaguola and Pearl River, 200; summing up 4,410. Of these there are of infantry, 2,830; cavalry, 948; artillery, 632. At Pollard the effective force is but 1,780; of infantry, 1,059; cavalry, 588; artillery, 133, with battery of six pieces; the total effective land force in the Gulf District being 6,190, scattered through a wide extend of country, poorly disciplined, badly armed raw troops, to defend the only Gulf port of any importance which is left us and one of the most important lines of communication in the Confederacy; a force which, small as it is, could not be concentrated at either one of the points without exposing the other.