or who may volunteers," &c. The words "now in the service" apply as well to those who volunteer as to those who are tendered. The whole scope of the act is to authorize the President to relieve the separate States (so far as the public service would warrant it) of the troops already levied by them, and the second section of the law shows this also to have been the policy as regards arms and munitions. The States were authorized to turn over and make chargeable to the Federal Government such arms and munitions as they then had. The law neither authorized them to continue to levy troops nor to purchase munitions for account of the Confederate States. Now, in making appropriations for the forces Congress had divided its legislation into three acts:

First. There is a special act for part of the "provisional forces," as is called into service at Charleston.

Second. There is an appropriation "for the Regular Army and other purposes. " This appropriation law consists of two sections only. The first appropriates certain sums for the Regular Army. The second authorizes you, under the direction of the President, to apply any portion of these sums to the support "of the provisional forces which may be called into the service. "

Third. There is an appropriation of $5,000,000 for 'such volunteer forces as may be called into service," &c.

It seems to me that the action of Congress is plain and clear that there is no appropriation for the "provisional forces" except under the first two acts, and that the appropriation in the third act is not applicable at all to any "provisional forces. " I see no complication in the law. But the facts as stated in your letter give rise to a difficulty in the application of the law. From the very force of circumstances, from the exigency of public affairs, you have not been able to keep your "provisional forces" distinct from your volunteers. You have not had the men raised by the States transferred to you in the mannerthe Congress. State troops and volunteer companies and battalions are all fused into one force that is called the Provisional Army. It is thus impossible to apply the appropriations in strict accordance with the letter of the law. I cannot answer your question otherwise than to say that under the law neither of the appropriations is applicable to your whole Provisional Army as now constituted; that the only course that seems practicable is to make a calculation as nearly exact as possible of the relative proportions of volunteers and provisional forces that now compose your Provisional Army, according to the distinction between these two classes of forces above set forth, and to draw from the $5,000,000 appropriation such proportion as is applicable to the volunteers, and from the appropriation for the Regular Army the remainder of the sum. This latter sum, however, to be drawn only under the direction of the President in compliance with the express provisions of the act.

Your obedient servant,

J. P. BENJAMIN.

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT,

Montgomery, April 2, 1861.

His Excellency A. B. MOORE,

Montgomery, Ala.:

DEAR SIR: Being informed that you are still engaged in enlisting men, in the expectation that they will be transferred to the Confederate