to sea with North Carolina coal. This, being unsuited to her furnaces and machinery, rendered her incapable of making more than half her usual speed and left behind her a dense volume of black smoke, by which she was followed and captured. So obviously is her loss attribute to the unwarranted seizure of her coal, that I trust you will memorialize for compensation. The unwise policy of making our only remaining sea-port a resort for our cruisers cannot be too strongly condemned. It has doubled the stringency of the blockade, has already caused the loss of many valuable steamers, and will ultimately provoke the utmost efforts of the enemy to capture Wilmington, It is no exaggeration to say that the Advance alone, in solid benefits, has been worth more to our Government than all the cruisers we have ever had afloat. Why it should be the policy the common benefit, and then pursue a course with our armed vessels so well calculated to crush all importations whatever, is to me inexplicably strange.

Captain Pinkney, S. C. Navy, in command of naval forces at Wilmington, and under whose directions coals were obtained for the Tallahassee and Chickamauga, forwards the following report on the subject:

Flag Officer R. F. PINKNEY,

Commanding, &c.:

SIR: In reply to your verbal inquiry in reference to the impressment of coal on this station for the use of C. S. cruisers that have recently sailed from this port I have the honor to state that not one particle of coal was taken from the steamer Advance, nor one pound impressed to which the State or any of the joint owners of that steamer had the slightest claim. When the steamers Let-Her-B and Florie were being fitted out, a portion of the coal necessary for the supply of those steamers was taken from the wharf of Messrs. Power, Low & Co., the agents and part owners of the Advance; but I was distinctly informed by a member of that firm that his coal belonged to three different steamers not then in port. To one of these steamers I had lent about twenty tons of North Carolina coal to be returned in English coal, and the quantity taken from her just satisfied my claim. The other two steamers, as I have said, were not then in port, and the coal that belonged to them was lying there waiting their return. It is now alleged by the agents of the Advance that as they had control of this coal it might have been available for the Advance if the Government had not impressed it. This, however, is a mere probability, as other steamers belonging to this firm might in the meantime have come in short of fuel, to which this coal would have undoubtedly have been given. At any rate it did not belong to the Advance, nor was it retained for her exclusive use, and its being appropriated to her use depended upon a mere contingency-namely, her not being preceded into port by other vessels with an insufficiency of coal for their outward voyage. It will, then, be seen that the extraordinary statement ventured upon by Governor Vance in his late annual message, that the loss of the Advance is attributable solely to the impressment of coal by the Confederate Government has very little foundation in fact.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. A. WILLARD,

Naval Coal Agent.

Forwarded by R. F. Pinkney, captain, &c.

You will perceive from this report that your statement as to coals taken from or belonging to the Advance was an error.

I deem it proper to advert particularly to the following paragraph of your message:

These cruisers sally forth with coal seized from steamers engaged in bringing supplies of vital importance, thus insuring their capture, destroy a few insignificant smacks, which only serve to irritate the enemy, and then steam back to Wilmington to seize more coal, bringing down upon the inlets a new swarm of the enemy's gun-boats.

It is not my purpose to discuss questions of policy, but simply to correct errors of fact, and I deem it unnecessary here to express an opinion upon the views which your letter presents relative to the use made of the port of Wilmington by Confederate cruisers. Nor, in reference to your remark as to the "course of the Government with