request of the Secretary of State, and indorsed by the President, allowed me to peruse your late instructions brought on by Lieutenant Collins. The object of these instructions was directly connected with my mission. They necessarily fail, from the determination of Governor Houston to protest against such military aid being rendered him. If, consistently with your own views, you can await further instructions from Washington prior to making the entrenched camp at Indianola, or, in fact, taking any step which will lead the secession party of Texas to imagine that the Government proposes to coerce them, I should regard it a high act of patriotism, and, under the present information, of duty. General Scott's letter clearly, states, "until the people of Texas have seceded," &c. It also states, "if five hundred men can concentrated." Any practicable reason which may prevent your action toward making an entrenched camp until I reach, and you can hear from, Washington, I know will be regarded sufficient. I could only take this peculiar liberty under the absolute change of circumstances, which renders nugatory the action at Washington, and requires my immediate return there.

I am, most respectfully, your obedient servant,

F. W. LANDER.

Colonel WAITE, U. S. Army.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF TEXAS,
San Antonio, April 17, 1861.

SIR: I have the honor to inform you that a force of Texas State troops is now assembled in this city, and I have this evening learned that the officers, &c., here stationed will be arrested to-morrow, and held as prisoners of war. Two transports have sailed with troops, and it is hoped and expected that the third, the Star of the West, will sail in a day or two with the whole force now in camp at Green Lake. There will then remain seven companies of the Eighth Infantry, numbering, say, 370, the headquarters of that regiment, and the headquarters of the department. The Eighth Infantry will not reach Indianola before the 10th of May, if permitted to proceed to the coast. This, of course, requires that a fourth transport should be sent out for the embarkation of these troops.

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

C. A. WAITE,

Colonel, U. S. Army, Commanding Department.

WASHINGTON, D. C., May 25, 1861.

SIR: It is my unpleasant duty to report, for the information of the General-in-Chief, that on the 23rd of April last the following officers, then on duty at San Antonio, the headquarters of the Department of Texas, were seized by armed force, acting under what they term the Confederate States of America, and made prisoners of war, viz:

Colonel C. A. Waite, First Infantry, commanding department.

Major W. A. Nichols, assistant adjutant-general.

Military Storekeeper R. M. Potter, Ordnance Department.

Surg. E. H. Abadie, Medical Department.

Asst. Surg. J. R. Smith, Medical Department.