is to keep the former factory working as long as practicable without interfering with its rapid removal.

An unarmed company, in Harrison County, has offered its services, and I design arming it at Grafton. With prudent management I hope to assemble a number of companies at that post from the northwest, and for this purpose I have been corresponding with reliable gentlemen in various parts of that section of the State. Major boykin was here yesterday on his way to Grafton, where I hope he will not long remain without a command.

I would respectfully recommend that the money for which estimates have been made by the quartermaster and commissary be turned over to them at once, and, if practicable, that it be deposited in a Winchester or Charlestown bank. They have been forced to use their private credit, that of the State being insufficient.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

T. J. JACKSON,

Colonel, Virginia Volunteers, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS VIRGINIA FORCES,
Richmond, Va., May 8, 1861.

GEORGE MASON, Esq., Spring Bank, Alexandria, Va.:

SIR: I am instructed by Major-General Lee to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of May 5, respecting the defenseless condition of your neighborhood. General Lee is not insensible to the dangers to which your own and other unguarded neighborhoods in the State are exposed, and no one laments more deeply than he does that the available resources of the State do not enable him to give such efficient protection as he desires to every portion of the Commonwealth. He has instructed the commanding officers that every neighborhood shall be protected, as far as possible, by the troops stationed in it; but the limited resources of the State and her pressing exigencies render it necessary that the people in each locality should take such measures as are in their power to guard against marauding parties and do what they can for their own protection. The formation of home guards, arming and drilling them, and, by concerted signals, to collect the guards of adjacent neighborhoods in time of danger, to resist the sudden attack of small marauding bands of the enemy, are among the means of defense adopted by the inhabitants of the country bordering on Chesapeake Bay and the lower rivers, and are recommended for the consideration and adoption of yourself and your neighbors. He cannot but hope, if war is to be waged against us, that reason and the opinion of mankind will at least induce our enemies to conduct it in accordance with the rules that prevail among civilized nations.

I am, &c.,

JNO. A. WASHINGTON,

Aide, &c.

HEADQUARTERS VIRGINIA FORCES,
Richmond, Va., May 8, 1861.

Colonel WILLIAM B. TALIAFERRO,

Commanding, &c., Gloucester Point, Gloucester Court-House, Va.:

COLONEL: In reply to your letter of the 6th instant, asking instructions as to the course to be pursued in the event of an attempt on the