W.J. Alexander to Jeremiah Y. Dashiell, July 29, 1863

Head Quarters Southern Division
Mounted Regt. Texas State Troops
Camp Verde July 29th 1863

Col,

Feeling fully the responsibility resting upon
me, as the immediate commander of the Southern
Division of the Mounted Regt. Texas State Troops and
having the cause of Southern Freedom as my first
and prompting motive, I would represent to His
Excellency the Governor through you that a great
or considerable portion of the country near to and
through which a portion of the companies over which
I have command are stationed is with regard to our
present Struggle for Life and Liberty, as it were, filled with
“rottenness and dead mens’ [sic] bones.” I am credibly informed
by good, highly respectable, influential and Loyal
Citizens, that Deserters and Renegades from our Army
and country are daily and nightly passing through certain
Sections of this country, traveling the public highways
in Some instances, and in others going through the Moun-
tains and bypaths. These have been so bold in Some
instances as to ride up to citizen’s [sic] houses and order their
meals Served up[,] boldly asserting that they are deserters
and going to Mexico. These men find many friends in
certain localities, who find them and give them directions
how to avoid our camps. There are various other persons
living on or near this line who have Subsistence and
Quarter Master Stores to Spare but refuse to Sell them
for anything but Specie; thereby compelling the ________[?]