Unknown, September 1, 1861
GENERAL:
I have the honor to request that authority may be given me to provide the force necessary for the defense of the batteries now being finished at different points of the coast. For this I think the following will be necessary. i the coast, a force not exceeding 1,500 men.
2d. Authority to establish a recruiting service for the enlisted troops now on duty, viz; the regiment of South Carolina infantry and the battalion of South Carolina artillery, that the former may be recruited and filled up to ten full companies, and the latter increased to a regiment, with its proper complement of field officers. This will, of course, require the co-operation of the governor of the State.
3d. Authority to procure, as speedily as may be,such means of transport, armed if necessary, as will insure a speedy communication and transport, by the -nland routes, between the different points of the coast, as well as such facilities for guard service as may be necessary.
4th. To enable these things to be done as speedily as possible, and to provide such material as may be required by the chief engineer in charge of the coast defenses and by the ordnance officeron duty here, that means to the following amounts may be placed to the credit of the following officers, subject to draft for no other purpose than the defenses of the coast, unless
by order of the Secretary of War: To the chief engineer,
The reasons for the above are as follows : For the first, that many men
will be willing to muster into service for a particular locality who would
not engage to go beyond the limits of the State or the coasts adjacent.
these plantations, drawn from localities thickly settled with black population.
For the second, is the manifest importance of keeping up the strength
of the small force enlisted in the department, being more reliable for the