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Executive Department
Montgomery, Ala. Dec. 5^th, 1861.

Hon. J. P. Benjamin, [check]
Secretary of War;

Sir,

I have the pleasure to inform you that the Legislature of
Alabama have appropriated thirty thousand dollars for Hospital
accommodation and supplies for Alabama troops in Virginia, and
other divisions of the Army, containing Alabama troops : and that
the Hon. Arthur F. Hopkins has been appointed the agent of the
State, who, with his patriotic lady, is now about to set out for
Virginia. The Legislature also have provided that the Surgeon for
the Hospital, to be established, shall be appointed by the Govenor of
Alabama; but as we desire the Establishment to be wholly under the
Control of the War Department (as it manifestly should be) I
decline to commission a Surgeon, as I am earnestly desirous not
to interfere with the powers properly appertaining to your
Department; but as the State has made this liberal provision
for her disabled troops in the Confederate Service, and as
Dr. C. J. Clark - now Surgeon of the 10^th Alabama Regiment - Col. Forney-
is highly competent and trustworthy and appreciated by our troops
and his transfer to that position would be most agreable to this
Department, and our public authorities, I doubt not it will be
your pleasure to accommodate our wishes by assigning Doct. Clark
to the charge of the Hospital which may be established by Judge
Hopkins. And I desire further to request that our Alabama
Hospital may receive all the encouragement and assistance
from your Department needful to attain the humane object
comtemplated by its establishment.

With high regard, I am
Your Obt. Servant.
(Signed) John Gill Shorter.

Executive Department,
Montgomery, Ala. Dec. 6^th, 1861.

Gentlemen ; [check]

I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your
communication of this date, enclosing the proceedings of the Grand
Lodge of Alabama, by which is appropriated the sum of twenty-
five hundred dollars for the use of the sick and disabled soldiers
of Alabama, in the Army of the Confederate States ; and also a
warrant drawn by the Grand Master on the Grand Treasurer
in my favor, as Governor of Alabama for the above amount, to
be disbursed in accordance with the instructions of the Grand
Lodge. This liberal donation springing from the warm
and generous impulses of a Fraternity identified with the noblest
deeds of charity and the highest exhibitions of patriotism, will
fill the popular heart with joy and gratitude. In behalf of
Alabama I thank you for this timely contribution to a cause
which demands the combined means and energies of the
whole people. The cruel war now being waged against us
will peril the health and lives of neighbors and friends, of
loved ones - but the Grand Lodge of Alabama will have the
unspeakable satisfaction to know that, to the utmost of its
ability, it has relieved the sufferings of those gallant men
who shall have gone forth to endure privations, encounter
disease and death in the defence of their homes and