Rt, A. Wats to of Alabama, January 5, 1864

No. 2. Richmond, January 5, 1864. For the information of all concerned, and to correct prevalent misapprehension, it is announced that there exists no mandatory provision of law securing to enrolled conscripts the right to choose in what company or regiment they will serve. They cannot be assigned to companies from other States, and in general their wishes are to be consulted as to the choice of companies, where no considerations for the good of the service intervene to prevent compliance. Assignments once made by commandants of conscripts in good faith, in the exercise of their discretion, will not be considered as fit subjects for complaints. By order:

Adjutant and Inspector General.

AN ACT to continue in force an act entitled ”An act to provide for the compensation of certain persons therein named,” approved May the first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the act entitled ”An act to provide for the compensation of certain persons therein named,” approved May the first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, which, by its own limitation, would expire on the first of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, be, and the same is hereby, continued in force until the first of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-five.

Approved January 6, 1864.

Montgomery, January 6, 1864. Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War: Sir: Unless the planting interest in the South can be carried on successfully the armies of the Confederacy cannot be supported. Without iron the planting interests cannot be profitably carried on.

Alabama has an immense quantity of iron ore, and many of her people are making iron, but all or nearly all have contracts with the Confederate Government to deliver all they make to the Government authorities. The consequence is that the planters, even in the best iron regions of the State, cannot get enough iron to make and repair their agricultural implements. Now, sir, the object of this communication is to ask that the contractors be authorized to sell to planters some of the iron they make. I have numbers of letters showing the necessity for such instructions to your contractors and agents. It is useless to enlarge on a subject which must be fully appreciated at a glance by the Secretary of War. Will you grant this right?

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,