Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-eighth Congress, Part I

Mr. St. John to Mr. Smith.

Confederate States of America, War Department, Nitre and Mining Bureau, Richmond, October 28, 1862.

Sir: The undersigned, for and on behalf of the Confederate States of America, will receive from you shipments of nitre, to be delivered within the limits of said Confederate States, and not to exceed one thousand tons, upon the following terms and rates of payment:

1st. For nitre delivered at any confederate port east of the Mississippi river, seventy-five (75) cents per pound, of ninety per cent. purity, if delivered on or before March 1, 1863.

2d. For nitre delivered as above, but after March 1, 1863, sixty cents per pound, of ninety per cent. purity.

3d. For all nitre delivered as above, at confederate ports between the Mississippi and Rio Grand rivers, fifty cents per pound, of ninety per cent. purity.

It is to be distinctly understood, in connexion with the above stipulation, that all payments thus due are to be made and received in the treasury notes of the Confederate States, or, if preferred, in their bonds; and that the inspection of a duly accredited officer from this bureau shall be final as to the quality of the nitre received, and that inferior qualities, under ninety per cent. purity, shall be paid for at a pro rata valuation.

J. M. ST. JOHN, Major and Sup. C. S. Nitre and Mining Bureau.

Approved:

J. GORGAS, Colonel and Chief of Ordnance.

Mr. Wm. K. Smith, London, England.

[With the above letter were enclosed clippings from the Richmond papers relating to the war.]