HEADQUARTERS FORCES OF VIRGINIA,
Norfolk, Va., June 7, 1861.

Major General R. E. LEE, Commanding Forces of Virginia:

SIR: The great difficulty of commanding with and supplying our batteries on the Nansemond River has retarded the work on them, and been of serious inconvenience to us. I determined to put a small steamer on the river, and on the night before last Captain A. Sinclair took the small steamer Roanoke, which Commodore Forrest had chartered and put at my disposal. Captain Sinclair ran her in very handsomely, without being discovered by the guard-boats od the enemy, and she is now on the river; and, in connection with the railroad to Suffolk, puts us in easy communication with all the batteries on the Nansemond River.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJ. HUGER,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

GENERAL ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS VIRGINIA FORCES,

No. 25.
Richmond, Va., June 8, 1861.

By the Governor of Virginia.

A PROCLAMATION.

The delegates of the people of Virginia, in Convection assembled, having by their ordinance passed-April 25, 1861, adopted and ratified the Constitution of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America, ordained and established at Montgomery, Ala., on February 8, 1861, and the State of Virginia having been, by an act of the Confederate States, passed May 7, 1861, admitted as a State into the Confederate Government, and the President being, under the Constitution of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the Confederate States and of the militia of the several States when called into the service of the Confederate States:

Now, therefore, I, John Letcher, governor of Virginia, by and with the advice and consent of the executive council, do hereby transfer to the authorities of the Confederate States, by regiments, all the volunteer forces which have been mustered into the service of Virginia, and do order a like transfer, by regiments, battalions, squadrons, and companies, of all volunteers or militia, as the same shall be formed, and their services may be required.

I further hereby transfer to the authorities of the Confederate States the command of all the officers, seamen, and marines of the Provisional Navy of Virginia, for service in the Confederate States.

I do further order that all officers of the Virginia service now on duty in any of the departments of the staff continue to discharge their respective functions, under the direction and control of the President, until otherwise ordered; and that all quartermaster's, commissary, and medical stores belonging to the State and in charge of said officers, to be turned over for the use of the Confederate States, upon proper receipts for the articles turned over, to be forwarded to the accounting officer for settlement. All moneys in charge of any of the departments will be forthwith returned into the treasury of the State.