Judah P. Benjamin to Brigadier-General William H. Carroll, December 17, 1861

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,        

Richmond, December 17, 1861.

Brig. Gen. W. H. CARROLL, Knoxville, Tenn.:

SIR: Your letter of the 13th instant, containing an account of the difficulties which have hitherto prevented the movement of your brigade, has been handed to me by Lieutenant-Colonel Golladay. The principal difficulty seems to be that your regiments are unarmed, and I am unable to discover from your statements that you are much nearer a capacity for movement now than you were two months ago. Your troops are enlisted but for twelve months, and to such troops we never furnish arms. At least one-fourth of the term of your men has passed away, and nearly the entire expenditure of the Government is a dead loss up to the present time. It is impossible for us to carry on a war at such an enormous expenditure as is involved in receiving twelvemonths' men without arms. I will allow you till the 10th of January to complete the armament of your regiments, and at that date I shall order all unarmed companies and regiments to be disbanded. Lieutenant-Colonel Golladay has inquired of me in relation to obtaining arms from this Government, but we give none Whatever to any but troops enlisted for the war. If your men will now enlist for the war they will be entitled to receive the bounty of $50 allowed by Congress, and I will endeavor to aid in arming them; but, if not, all that are unarmed must be disbanded on the 10th of January.

Your obedient servant,

J. P. BENJAMIN,        

Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 7 (Serial No. 7), p. 771