ssibly delay our
recognition. If so, what may be the consequences when the falsehood is
exposed? I doubt the policy of any species of dishonesty.

Gov. Shorter, of Alabama, demands the officers of Forrest's captives for
State trial, as they incited the slaves to insurrection.

Mr. S. D. Allen writes from Alexandria, La., that the people despair of
defending the Mississippi Valley with such men as Pemberton and other
hybrid Yankees in command. He denounces the action also of
quartermasters and commissaries in the Southwest.

A letter from Hon. W. Porcher Miles to the Secretary of War gives an
extract from a communication written him by Gen. Beauregard, to the
effect that Charleston must at last fall into the hands of the enemy, if
an order which has been sent there, for nearly all his troops to proceed
to Vicksburg, be not revoked. There are to be left for the defense of
Charleston only 1500 exclusive of the garrisons!

MAY 15TH.--The Tredegar Iron Works and Crenshou's woolen factory were
mostly destroyed by fire last night! This is a calamity.

We have also intelligence of the occupation of Jackson, Miss., by the
enemy. Thus they cut off communication with Vicksburg, and that city may
be doomed to fall at last. The President is at work again at the
Executive Office, but is not fully himself yet. The Secretary of War
dispatched Gen. Lee a day or two ago, desiring that a portion of his
army, Pickett's division, might be sent to Mississippi. Gen. Lee
responds that it is a dangerous and doubtful expedient; _it is a
question between Virginia and Mississippi; he will send the division off
without delay, if still deemed necessary_. The President, in sending
this response to the Secretary, says it is just such an answer as he
expected from Lee, and he approves it. Virginia will not be abandoned.

Gens. Lee, Stuart, and French were all at the War Department to-day. Lee
looked thinner, and a little pale. Subsequently he and the Secretary of
War were long closeted with the President.

Gen. Schenck (Federal) has notified Gen. W. E. Jones, that our men taken
dressed in Federal uniform will not be treated as prisoners of war, but
will be tried and punished as spies, etc. The President directed the
Secretary of War to-day to require Gen. Lee to send an order to the
commander of the Federal army, that accouterments and clothing will be
deemed subjects of capture, and if our men are treated differently than
prisoners of war, when