John B. Grayson to Requisition for ordnance and ordnance stores required to be filled at the, September 10, 1861

WAR DEPARTMENT, ©. S. A.,

Richmond, September 10, 1861.

His Excellency FRANCIS W. PICKENS, Governor of South Carolina:

SIR: It affords me very great pleasure to acknowledge your very interesting communication to this Department of the 1st and 2d of the present month, and to congratulate you upon the evidence they furnish of the ceaseless energies put forth by the governor of South Carolina during your administration. Where such faithful manifestations of publie concern exist, guided and controlled by such admirable wisdom and policy, it is profoundly to be regretted that this Department is so circumscribed by law as not always to have it in its power to second your suggestions. Under the law a regiment is limited to ten companies, and therefore your proposition to incorporate two additional companies into Colonel Gregg’s regiment, although based on sound reasoning and solid facts, cannot be granted. Colonel Gregg has been informed more at large of the manner in which the action of this Department is circumscribed in the premises, and will doubtless communicate with you on the subject. Nor does there exist any authority by which I can authorize you to appoint company officers. They are invariably elected, according to the laws regulating the militia of the States respectively, and this is the case where vacancies occur after troops have been received and mustered into the Confederate service. To enable the Government even to appoint field officers troops must come to it direct, without State intervention, under the amended acts of Congress passed at the second session. Then they must come solely by companies, and be mustered into the service as such. Thus your excellency will perceive how utterly impossible it is for this Department to entertiin your proposition in these respects. Neither can I gratify you by accepting the two unarmed cavalry regiments you generously offer. ‘The service does not absolutely require them, and our present resources do not admit of their acceptance. But the two eavalry companies to which you allude will be received, if armed and equipped; and where there is necessarily so much negation of your wishes, I am happy to say that the rifle regiment you propose to raise for the war and to arm will be taken into service.

This Department, through an anxious desire to oblige you, will also receive ten companies, to be offered by companies, and to be organized by its authority into a regiment, thus reserving to itself the right to appoint the field officers; but if your excellency can possibly arm these companies, it is sincerely hoped you will arm them, though it be only with the flint musket, country rifle, or heavy shot-gun.

The cannon powder that you ask for cannot be spared by the Ordnance Office unless there be an absolute existing necessity for it, under the pressure of demand in other quarters, where it is indispensable. It is preferred that your excellency will retain your patience upon the subject for the present. ;

I entirely coneur with your excellency in the poliey of not accepting any more troops except for the war, and have endeavored ever since the Congress invested this Department with the discretionary power o: thus receiving military tenders to limit its favor by this policy; but as our arms have not been abundant, it has been and still is a matter oí pure necessity to accept tenders coming to us armed for a less period.

With renewed congratulations upon the martial force of your State and considerations of high personal regard, I remain, your excellency’s obedient servant,

L. P. WALKER . Secretary of War.

HDQRS. MIL. DEPT. MIDDLE AND East FLORIDA, Fernandina, September 13, 1861. Hon. L. P. WALKER Secretary of War, 0. S., Richmond:

SIR: The whole population of Florida may well unite with me, as they do, in deploring the condition of the State. Ihave been in the State nine days and have been at this place for five days. I have pulled down much of the battery and magazine, and when completed (I hope in two weeks) the harbor will be guarded and protected. An alarm existed a few days since, and the governor promptly called out a large force of volunteers, and a strong resistance could have been made, but without aid from Fort Clinch and the battery it would have been useless to expect it. As sure as the sun rises, unless cannon, powder, &c., be sent to Florida in the next thirty days, she will fall into the hands of the North. Nothing human can preven: it. There are not 4,000 pounds of powder at every post combined. The batteries are incorrectly put up and not finished. The enemy can land where they please. Guns and chassis are lying on the beach, though that I have remedied. There is not an officer to put up the guns or an officer to superintend their instruction’ when put up. “There is not an officer to receive the supplies when they arrive. Ihavenoassistantadjutant-general, nor an assistant commissary, nor an assistant quartermaster, nor an aide-de-camp. Mr. Wood, if appointed a lieutenant, was applied for as aide, Mr. D’Anson as assistant quartermaster. Captain Gott was applied for, and received orders, which were revoked ; I applied for no one else, as 1 knew no one to apply for. I applied to General (ooper for Lieutenant Thomas, adjutant of Colonel Ward’s regiment Florida volunteers, who was dissatisfied with his position. Colonel Ward, Lieutenant Thomas informs me, will object to the transfer. lI trust, Mr. Secretary, that you will take this communication under your immediate notice, and have the ordnance stores and the various officers sent at once. I send a list of guns and ammunition wanted forthwith. Florida will become a Yankee province unless measures for her relief are promptly made. I leave to-morrow for Tallahassee, and shall, with all dispatch, visit Saint Mark’s, Apalachicola, Cedar Keys, and Tampa. I will communicate my movements from time to time. I send a copy of my requisition for ordnance; also a cireular found, with many others, posted about this city.

Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

Brigadier-General, C. A., Comdg. Middle and East Florida.

[Inclosures.]

Requisition for ordnance and ordnance stores required to be filled at the

earliest moment for the Military Department of Middle and East Flori

and to be consigned to Capt. William Hickman, assistant quartermaster,

Fernandina, East Florida :

14 32-pounder cannon; six to be rifled, if possible.