suitable ammunition, and I again request that staff officers for this department may be drawn from the troops comprising this command.

Very respectfully,

C. Q. TOMPKINS,

Colonel, Virginia Volunteers, Commanding.

His Excellency Governor LETCHER.

[Inclosure.]

CHARLESTON, KANAWHA COUNTY, VA., May 30, 1861.

Men of Virginia! Men of Kanawha! To Arms!

The enemy has invaded your soil and threatens to overrun your country under prexy of protection. You cannot serve two masters.

You have not the right to repudiate allegiance to thy our own State. Be not seduced by his sophistry or intimidated by his threats. Rise and strike for your firesides and altars. Repel the aggressors and preserve your honor and your rights. Rally in every neighborhood with or with or without arms. Organize and unite with the sons of the soil to defend it. Report yourselves without delay to those nearest to you in military position. Come to the aid of your fathers, brothers, and comrades in arms at this place, who are here for the protection of your mothers, wives, and sisters. Let every man who would uphold his rights turn out with such arms as he may get and drive the invader back.

C. Q. TOMPKINS,

Colonel, Virginia Volunteers, Commanding.

Numbers 3. Report of Colonel George A. Porterfield, commanding Confederate forces at Philippi.

HEADQUARTERS OF VIRGINIA FORCES,
Philippi, Va., May 29, 1861.

COLONEL: On the 27th instant I received reliable information of a contemplated movement among those hostile to us, by which a large body of men were intended to be precipitated upon me in the rear, by the railroad, without notice, and in a few hours' time. I was also assured that about fifteen hundred Federal troops had collect at Marietta, some at Beliare, one thousand of fifteen hundred on the island opposite Wheeling; in fact, that there were considerable bodies of men everywhere on that border that could be easily collected and latched therefrom. In this state of things I ordered some of the bridges of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad northwest of Fairmont be to destroyed, which order was carried into effect by the destruction of two between Farmington and Mannington, about thirty-five miles northwest of Grafton.

I also sent out an expedition to destroy a bridge of the Northwestern Virginia Railroad, fifty or sixty miles west Grafton. The object of this expedition has, I am informed, been accomplished, although my party has not yet returned. I eased a small bridge of the same road, about fifteen miles west of Grafton, to be destroyed but I learn that it has been repaired by the company, so that trains pass over it.

On the evening of the 27th I received information of the arrival, by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad of a body of troops, variously estimated at from one thousand to three thousand, at the burned bridges