troops were formed, which was promptly done, I repaired to the command, and then, ascertaining that the enemy were entering the city by Washington street, and that several steamers had been placed so that their guns could command many of the principal streets, I ordered the command to march, and proceeded out of the city by Duke street. Captain Ball accompanied me as far as his quarters, a little west of the railroad depot, where he halted, and I proceeded to the cars, which were about half a mile from the depot, where I had ordered them to be stopped, and, from orders given before marching out of the city, the cavalry was to follow in my rear, for the purpose of giving me information in regard to the movements of the enemy. Captain Powell followed my instructions, and why Captain Ball did not I am unable to report.

Respectfully, colonel, your obedient servant,

GEO. H. TERRETT,

Colonel, Commanding Alexandria.

Lieutenant Colonel THOMAS JORDAN,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

MAY 26-30, 1861. - Advance upon and occupation of Grafton, W. Va., by United States forces.

No. 1. - Major General George B. McClellan, U. S. Army.

No. 2. - Colonel C. Q. Tompkins, commanding Confederate forces in the Kanawha Valley.

No. 3. - Colonel George A. Porterfield, commanding Confederate forces at Philippi.

No. 1. Report of Major General George B. McClellan, U. S. Army.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO,
Cincinnati, May 27, 1861.

COLONEL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the General-in-Chief's letter of the 21st,* together with telegram of the 24th and 26th. My time has been so much occupied, both by day and night, that I have been unable to reply to the General's letter, nor can I at the present moment do more than acknowledge its receipt.

I was engaged in maturing plans to carry out the General's telegraphic instructions, when I learned by telegram that two bridges on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, near FArmington Station, had been burned on Saturday night. I received this information late yesterday afternoon at Camp Dennision. I at once returned to the city. Colonel Kelley, of the First Virginia Volunteers, with his own regiment and four companies of the Second, are ordered by telegraph to move without delay from?wheeling towards Fairmont, guarding the bridges as they proceed. Colonel Irvine, Sixteenth Ohio, at Bellaire, was ordered to support the movement. Colonel Steedman, Fourteenth Ohio, supported by the Eighteenth and two light guns, was ordered to occupy Parkersburg and the lines of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, towards Grafton. I should premise that I had received information that the rebels intended to destroy the rest of the bridges on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

---------------

*Letter not found. For telegrams see "Correspondence, etc.," post.

---------------