oath of allegiance and fight in our cause, shall have a negro and fifty acres of land upon being honorably discharged, and shall further have all the negroes which they can capture from the enemy, to be their own property at the end of the war. Lincoln has tempted thousands of men into his Army by offering reward. I now propose to outbid him, and as we have the most alluring means we shall get the most men. If we make it to the interest of the world to fight on our side, men from all quarters of the globe will take up arms in our defense. We caan reduce Grant's and Sherman's armies one-half in numbers by desertions if we offer them the bait. We can enlist men from all quarters of the United States if we make it to their interest to come. In a word, we can buy out the armed forces of Lincoln, secure their service on our side. We can command thousands of men from Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria, England, and France by offering them a home in the sunny South and a servat. We will thus avoid the trouble of arming slaves. We will remove the prejudices against the institution and bring all the world up to its support from interested motives. The slave-owners can well afford to give up to the soldiers who have and will fight to maintain the institution 1,000,000 of slaves to secure forever the other 2,500,000. The mode of getting the land and negroes to pay these bounties with would be by taxation in kind, by general laws to purchase, by donations to the Government, by capture, by enslaving the free negroes in the South, by taxation and contribution by State Legislature if needed. With this system of laws wisely and properly regulated our people can be satisfied. Many of our farmers and mechanics can be released and sent home to attend to the industrial pursuits, and an army of 500,000 men can be put at General Lee's disposal to march where he pleases, and feed them on the front instead of looking to his rear for supplies.

Hoping, sir, that the wish of your heart, the independence of the South, may be speediily consummated.

I am, with great respect, your obedient servant,

J. W. ELLIS.

MONTGOMERY, ALA., January 30, 1865.

Major Gen. J. M. WITHERS:

SIR: I learn that Captain John C. Brown has made application to you for authority to recruit and organize into companies such absentees and deserters in several of the counties of East Alabama as he may induce to do so. This is to say to you that I am solicitor for the judicial circuit in which those counties are situated, and am well acquainted with the facts which cause Captain Brown, to make the request, and heartily approve of the project. Most of these deserters are between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, and, so far as capacity to endure the hardships of the service, would make good soldiers. They are generally men who are conscribed and denied the privilege of selecting the regiment and company of their choice. This they considered an act of injustice, and it caused many of them to desert, and for the same reason they are now unwilling to return to their commands. But I learn that many of them haave expressed a desire to join the Army if allowed to go into as new organization, and I have no doubt they would do so if the right kind of opportunity is afforded them. Besides the advantage that would accrue to the country in adding men to the Army, it would be doing a very great