E. Kirby Smith to J. B. Magruder, September 7, 1863

Maj. Gen. J. B. MAGRUDER, Commanding District of Texas, &e.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 1st instant. I will not fix the point for your headquarters, but leave it to your own judgment to select the most suitable place from which you can give your attention to the various wants of your district. It may be Houston, or a point near the termination of’ the’railroad to Navasota.

Only your disposable troops were ordered to the Northern Sub-District as a support to Brigadier-General Steele. In the letter of the 28th ultimo, signed by Brigadier-General Boggs, the object was to push forward the organization of the State troops, and to bring them into the field at points within supporting distance of an invasion either from Arkansas, Louisiana, or the Indian Territory.

214 ow. FLA, S. ALA., S. MISS., L. A., TEX., N. MEX. [Cuar. XXXVIL

In my interview with you in Rusk, I pointed out the importance to us of the lines of Red River and the Sabine, and a point near Nacogdoches was suggested for a concentration of the State troops intended as reserves or supports for the defense of those lines. A point somewhere in the Northern Sub-District should also be selected as a camp for the State troops intended to support Brigadier-General Steele in a retreat from the Indian country.

Whilst we are threatened by formidable columns of the enemy from Arkansas, the Indian country, and Louisiana, an advance to Red River, even under the most unfavorable circumstances for us, must necessarily be slow, and the letter of the 28th ultimo, above referred to, was intended only to prepare in advance for a contingency likely to happen at no very distant day.

I have the honor to be, general, your obedient servant,