[Inclosure Numbers 4.]

HDQRS CONFEDERATE ARMY IN NORTHWESTERN VIRGINIA,
July 16, 1861.

Major General GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, Commanding U. S. Forces.

SIR: Your letter of the 15th instant, with its anomalous address, has been received. In response, I have simply to say that I am as yet wholly unoppressed that a different policy in regard to the arrests of suspected persons, or the protection of private property from the line you have os naturally proposed for yourself, has been pursued by the chief of the division of the Confederate Army. Hence your suggestion as to the propriety of abandoning any other would seem to be uncalled-for. Begging to remind you that any information you may receive as to the absence of sufficient grounds for the arrest an detention of the persons you name (or any others) may, to say the least of it, be quite as unreliable as the evidence upon which such persons are held, I will conclude by saying to you that justice will be duly regarded by me in the treatment of all persons whatsoever.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

H. R. JACKSON,

Brigadier-General, C. S. Army.

[Inclosure Numbers 5.]

PETERSBURG, VA., July 16, 1861.

Colonel JOHNSON:

My command is here, marching to Harrisburg. We have suffered awfully. Not many men were killed by the enemy, but there are hundreds missing. We were near starvation. The cavalry scouts still hang on our rear, but I do not think they are pursuing in force. What is left of this army will not be fit for service in a month.

Very respectfully,

J. N. RAMSEY,

Colonel, Commanding.

P. S.-Let me know if you are threatened by the enemy.

[Inclosure Numbers 6.]

BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS,

Camp near Monterey, Va., July 17, 1861.

J. N. RAMSEY, Colonel, Commanding, &c.:

SIR: Your note of yesterday is at hand. I am surprised and pained to learn by it that you may not be on the road to this point. If so, you will at once change your line of march, and with all practicable dispatch, join me here. You will send forward, with directions to move as rapidly as possible, the artillery and cavalry attached to your command; also the engineer officers, and Lieutenants Washington and Humphries of the C. S. Army.

Respectfully,

H. R. JACKSON,

Brigadier-General, Commanding, &c.