[510]
Polk recommends Colonels E. W. Gantt, M. L. Walker, Lieutenant-Colonel M. J. Wright.
There is no cavalry colonel here to recommend.
I consider Ransom indispensable.
He should be sent at once.
Please order forthwith, to join me as Chief Commissary, Colonel Lee or Major Williams.
No officers here to select from.
Will Major Brent be sent me or not?
I need him hourly.
My Quartermaster is a Captain Clement Young.
He ought to be made a major; a common grade in that department here, I find.
Unofficial.
If officers applied for yesterday cannot be ordered to report immediately to me, I can but foresee most disastrous consequences here; for part of this army is in a state of chaos. My health being still bad, I am not able, unaided, to establish order here, and would then request to be relieved from my present command.
Has my telegram of the 8th been received, relative to appointment of generals?
If so, what answer?
We have called for ten generals as indispensable; four are granted, and only two of these are present, the enemy being already engaged with our left at New Madrid.
I do not hold myself responsible for the results.
Commissary Department entirely out of funds.
Nothing can be had without them.
One million in hands of collector at Mobile can be had. Will department issue necessary orders at once?
Jackson, Tenn., March 6th, 1862.
Dear General,—Colonel Mackall's letter, through Lieutenant Otey, has just been received.
I send you, by the same officer, information just obtained through one Dr. Minturn, just in from Cairo, on his way to Houston, Texas.
He was anxious, he said, to visit your headquarters to get some papers left with Mr. Baylor; but his manners appearing rather suspicious, I preferred sending him direct to Texas.
His information may be true or not; you will have to judge for yourself.
