HEADQUARTERS VIRGINIA FORCES,
Richmond, Va., June 2, 1861.

Lieutenant Colonel B. S. EWELL,

Williamsburg, Va.:

I am instructed by General Lee to inform you that there will be sent to Jamestown Island to-morrow eight field guns (6 and 12 pounders) for the works now being constructed under your superintendence below Williamsburg. The commanding officer at Jamestown has been instructed to transport these guns at once to the neck of land, from which place you will remove them to the works for which they are intended. I suppose you will have no difficulty in this matter, the destruction of the wood trade, in which I learn your people have been largely engaged, having caused a large number of idle teams.

Respectfully, &c.,

R. S. GARNETT,

Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS VIRGINIA FORCES,
Richmond, Va., June 2, 1861.

Brigadier General B. HUGER,

Commanding, Norfolk, Va.:

SIR: In reply to your letter of the 31st instant, in relation to officers of the C. S. Army and of the Provisional Army of Virginia, under your orders, I am instructed to say, as to the latter, that they were sent to you to be entirely at your disposal, and you are authorized to employ them in any manner in which you may think they can be made useful to the service. You will receive information respecting the officers of the C. S. Army as soon as it can be referred to the proper authority.

I am, &c.,

R. S. GARNETT,

Adjutant-General.

YORKTOWN, VA., June 2, 1861.

[Colonel GARNETT?]

SIR: I have just returned from a reconnaissance of the country between this point and the neighborhood of Hampton and Newport News, and have received the most accurate information. There are about nine thousand troops at both places. They are generally in a most disorganized state. Troops are, however, arriving daily. Dr. Cuyler informs Colonel Carly S. Jones that no movement would be made until there were fifteen thousand troops at Fort Monroe and Newport News together. This, he supposed, would be within ten days. I am pushing forward the defenses here, and hope to be fully prepared.

I designed an expedition to dislodge the Federal troops from Newport News, which I was informed was almost in a defenseless state as to fortifications; but the regiment from Virginia, under Colonel August, was not ready to take the field, for want of shoes and other necessaries, and I ascertained at the last moment that the position of the troops at Newport News was much stronger than I had been led to believe. I therefore gave it up, and substituted for it one of reconnaissance, and to afford some relief to the frightened people of the country near Hampton. I found that the country was rich in supplies for horses, and that the presence there of two companies of cavalry and one of sharpshooters with a small gun would afford all the protection necessary to induce the