E. Kirby Smith to Richard Taylor, May 16, 1863

Maj. Gen. RICHARD TAYLOR, Commanding, de. :

GENERAL: Your dispatches of the 14th and 15th were received this morning. Two regiments of Speight’s brigade will be shipped immediately for Grand Ecore; they contain all that is efficient in his command.

The two battalions left here are an undisciplined mob, worthless and disaffected ; they would only be an incumbrance instead of an assistance to you. I shall disband and conscript the officers, and order the men to be distributed through the regiments of Walker’s division on its arrival.

I inclose you a copy of my letter to General Scurry, written when theevacuation by you of Natchitoches seemed inevitable.

The infantry at Niblett’s Bluff were ordered by me to concentrate there from Galveston and Houston, when the news first arrived of your battle on the Teche. A good road, both to Opelousas and Natchitoches, with a railroad to the Sabine, made it a desirable point, trom which a concentration could be made at Natchitoches or the enemy’s communications could be threatened, should he advance so rapidly as to defeat the concentration. The cavalry from Texas was all ordered by me, via Niblett’s Bluff, to report to General Mouton for operations on the enemy’s communications. Finding, after the evacuation of Alexandria, that General Scurry had ordered two of the cavalry regiments to San Augustine, I ordered them to report to you at Natchitoches, where, if not needed in your rear, they could have been ordered to join General Mouton.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,