[Inclosure.] General B. BRAGG: HARRISONBURG, LA., August 25, 1864. I would have been over four weeks ago but was positively forbidden by the department commander, General E. Kirby Smith. R. TAYLOR, HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WEST LOUISIANA, Brig. Gen. W. R. BOGGS, Chief of Staff, Shreveport, La. : GENERAL: I received your communication with reference to the deserters from Walker's and Polignac's divisions suggesting that it might be well to offer at once a pardon to the offenders. After visiting the troops and conferring with the commanders, I am satisfied that such a course at present would destroy the discipline of the command. The cases were more flagrant than I thought or than you have been led to suppose, amounting in at least one instance to an open mutinous outbreak under arms, encouraged, as it is believed, by a few officers. The ringleaders are being tried. In the punishment awarded it will be proper to make a distinction between the captured and those who voluntarily surrendered, and I will make that distinction in acting upon the sentences. Respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN: S. B. BUCKNER, Major-General, Commanding. RICHMOND, VA., September 15, 1864. After an examination of the correspondence between General E. Kirby Smith and Lieut. Gen. R. Taylor, on the subject of crossing troops from the District of Western Louisiana, as requested by you, at the instance of the President, I have the honor to submit the following statement relative to the command of those troops, and especially of Walker's division: On the 31st of July General Smith wrote to Lieutenant-General Taylor on the subject, and used the following language: "I have left it optional with General Walker to resume the command of his old divis ion or remain in this department." On the 1st of August General Smith wrote to General Walker suggesting the propriety of his taking temporary command of the troops to aid in the crossing of them under General Taylor, but leaving this optional with him. Of this last letter (August 1) General Taylor received no copy-it was a letter from the department to the district commander. On the 3d of August General Walker was ordered from department headquarters to assume command of the District of Texas, New-Mexico, &c. On the 8th or 9th of August Major-General Forney was ordered by General E. Kirby Smith to the command of Walker's division. On the 12th of August General Smith wrote to General Taylor forming him that "General Forney left Shreveport this morning for the purpose of taking command of Walker's old division; and further, I (General Smith) have just received information which has led me to believe that if General Forney assumes command of that division serious difficulty will arise. If my apprehensions are well grounded, as soon as the troops reach the east bank of the Mississippi River you will relieve him from command of the division and order him to report to Richmond." On the 14th of August Lieutenant-General Taylor wrote to General Smith, in answer to the letter of the 12th, setting forth the impropriety of placing General Forney in the command, under the circumstances, and the embarrassment which would result from carrying out General Smith's instructions in regard to that officer; also urging the policy and propriety of placing General Walker in command of the division. Copies of these letters are in the hands of General Bragg. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, WILL. M. LEVY, [Iudorsement.] Respectfully referred to the President. SEPTEMBEB 15, 1864. It seems that General Smith, after writing to General Taylor on the 31st of July, left it optional with General Walker, by his letter of the 1st of August, whether he should take command of his old division, and then on the 3d of August countermanded all he had done and sent General Walker to Texas. J. P. BENJAMIN. General B. BRAGG : SELMA, October 4, 1864. I have just ascertained that General E. Kirby Smith issued an order pardoning all the men who deserted from his army when ordered across the river. This after I had captured most of the deserters. Under these circumstances it seems to me to be useless to send further orders to cross the troops. R. TAYLOR, [First indorsement.] HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES, Richmond, October 5, 1864. Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War. This unfortunate order renders any further attempt to cross the troops useless. BRAXTON BRAGG, General. [Second indorsement.] OCTOBER 5, 1864. Respectfully submitted to the President for his consideration and for nstructions. [Third indorsement.] SECRETARY OF WAR: OCTOBER 7, 1864. Require General Smith to explain his conduct. As set forth it is a premium to desertion, for the purpose of evading an order to cross the river in pursuit of the enemy, and sustains the idea of defending a seetion of the Confederacy at the expense of the cause for which the States are associated. ADJUTANT-GENERAL: [Fourth indorsement.] JEFF'N DAVIS. OCTOBER 10, 1864. Address to General Smith the inquiries suggested by the President's indorsement. J. A. SEDDON, [Fifth indorsement.] ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, October 13, 1864. Respectfully referred to General E. K. Smith for report under the indorsement of the President. By order of Adjutant and Inspector General: JOHN W. RIELY, Assistant Adjutant-General. [Sixth indorsement.] HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT, Respectfully returned. The within is a misrepresentation. There was no order published either by myself or any subordinate commander pardoning all or any of the men who deserted when the troops were ordered across the river. Prompt measures were taken to arrest and punish the deserters. The ringleaders were tried, convicted, and shot. In acting on any communication personal to myself from General Taylor I beg the President to remember that General Taylor's systematic misrepresentation of my motives and acts exhibit a violence and prejudice restrained neither by respect for himself nor his superiors. E. KIRBY SMITH, General. SHREVEPORT, October 8, 1864. His Excellency the PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES: The crossing of the troops having failed after every effort, they were moved into Arkansas in support of Price's expedition into Missouri. Dispatches forwarded August 28 and September 13 explain fully This has caused the enemy to send from Mobile and Tennessee over 20,000 men, who now occupy a menacing attitude, requiring all my force to oppose them, Canby has assumed the offensive on the Atchafalaya with a force of near 8,000, and Steele, re-enforced, is making demonstra tions with over 20,000 in Arkansas. If the necessities east of the Mis sissippi are so urgent as to require sacrifices I would recommend tha all the troops in this department be ordered across, and that no hal measures be adopted endangering the loss of this department withou giving substantial aid to the army east of the river. E. K. SMITH, General, Commanding. eral HARDEE, Savannah: WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Transmit by the most rapid means the following dispatch to General Kirby Smith: Tal E. KIRBY SMITH, Shreveport: practicable cross troops to aid General Hood or divert forces from operating ist him in Tennessee. If crossing be impracticable, can you not make some diSon to withdraw troops of the enemy to the Trans-Mississippi? We have intellithat Steele, with 15,000 men, had reached Memphis and was proceeding to aid mas, commanding the enemy's operations against Hood. The campaign in the -Mississippi has ceased or been abandoned. While the enemy concentrates east the river the co-operation of your forces should in some form avail us. heral E. KIRBY SMITH, J. A. SEDDON, RICHMOND, VA., December 24, 1864. Commanding Trans-Mississippi Department: GENERAL: Your letter of August 21 has been received, and also pies of your correspondence with General R. Taylor relative to crossthe Mississippi River with troops, and copies of telegrams received officers on this side the Mississippi in regard to it. I stated to you telegram of August 8 that no record was to be found in my office that of the Bureau of Orders and Correspondence of a dispatch. dering the crossing of General Taylor's infantry, though you had en called on to follow the enemy's movements as far as practicable. eral Bragg being at Columbus, Ga., and aware of my views of the rtance of re-enforcements from the Trans-Mississippi Department, authorized by me to make such arrangements as the exigency of he case might require, sent a telegram to cross the infantry designated, l if practicable some others. Had your telegram of July 30 ad ted to the channel of its communication it would have apprised me the order having been issued by virtue of a general authority with hich I had invested General Bragg; but neither the telegram nor ar letter of August 21, replying to my telegram of August 8, afforded ne to that fact. It was, therefore, only on subsequent investigathat the manner in which you received the order was discovered, it is to be regretted that the withdrawal of so large a portion of the ny of the enemy, heretofore employed in the Trans-Mississippi Deartment, and their concentration against our forces on this side of the Mississippi River with such unfortunate results to us, was not either mptly met by the forwarding of re-enforcements from you, or that in The Trans-Mississippi Department such vigorous measures did not rapfollow your victories in April as would have prevented the enemy om sending troops to re-enforce his armies elsewhere, and perhaps ld have created an effectual diversion. The events of last summer and fall are known to you. The inad acy of the part of our forces on the east side of the Mississippi to tend with those of the enemy as now again concentrated you cannot to have realized, and it is hoped that you will spare no efforts to d assistance where it is so much needed for the maintenance of the non defense. Your various promotions and assignments to high esponsible duties furnish the best evidence of my confidence in your zeal and ability. I have not failed to appreciate the tendency of a commander whose mind is properly concentrated upon the necessities of his own position to overlook the wants which may exist elsewhere, and the possibility of his supplying them. We have one cause, one country, and the States have been confederated to unite their power for the defense of each. I no more doubt now than heretofore your earnest desire to promote the common welfare and to sacrifice every per sonal consideration to that end, and, as heretofore, have only sought to inform you of the public necessity, relying on your patriotism as far as was practicable to meet it. The superior numbers of the enemy render vigilance and rapid concentration peculiarly essential to our condition. With the hope that Divine power may endow you with wisdom to see what is right, and that we may hereafter rejoice together in the fina success of our country's cause, and with my best wishes for your per sonal welfare and happiness, I am, very respectfully and truly, yours, JEFF'N DAVIS. RICHMOND, VA., January 31, 1865, General E. KIRBY SMITH, Shreveport, La.: Since my last letter to you reiterating the proposition for you to sen such force as you could spare to the east side of the Mississippi Rive the enemy has continued to withdraw troops from the west to the ea and is now moving a large force from Tennessee to Virginia. Under these circumstances I think it advisable that you should b charged with military operations on both banks of the Mississippi, an that you should endeavor, as promptly as possible, to cross that riv with as large a force as may be prudently withdrawn from your prese department. Please answer immediately, that I may know what to expect. JEFFERSON DAVIS. JULY 23-24, 1864.-Operations in Randolph County, Mo., with skirmishes Allen (23d), and at Huntsville (24th). REPORTS. No. 1.-Col. Edwin C. Catherwood, Sixth Missouri State Militia Cavalry. No. 1. Report of Col. Edwin C. Catherwood, Sixth Missouri State Mil They are fighting at Allen. Cavalry. MACON, July 23, 186 I have sent 100 men to re-enforce militia. Operator says rebel re-enforcements just coming, but hold out. E. C. CATHERWOOD, Colonel, Commandin Assistant Adjutant-General. Col. O. D. GREENE, |