Campbell is one of the prominent leaders of the Lincoln party in Tennessee, a coadjutor of Johnson, Nelson, and Brownlow, and any exercise of military authority by his brother-in-law in Virginia would prove extremely baleful to the cause we have so much at heart.

I am afraid this long letter will worry you, but I know the facts and views it contains are important to this section of the country, and I did not feel at liberty to withhold them from the President.

I am, very truly, your field,

JOHN B. FLOYD.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE FORCES,
Norfolk, Va., June 26, 1861.

Major General R. E. LEE, Commanding Forces:

SIR: I received yesterday your letter of the 24th instant,* and duly remarked the contents. I dispatched a steamer, with a flag, to Old Point yesterday, and sent a letter to General Butler, informing him I forwarded some persons (the captain and crew of a Prussian barks, wrecked on the coast-some ladies and children, &c.), whose private affairs required them to go North. He could not be found to receive the letter, and the boat was detained several hours, as it appears Major-General Butler had himself gone over to the Ripraps, and, while the flag of truce was flying in the roads, he was firing (seven shots) from Sawyers' rifled-gun upon our works at Sewell's Point. Nobody hurt.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJ HUGER,

Brigadier-General.

HEADQUARTERS,
Winchester, June 26, 1861.

Lieutenant-Colonel DEAS, Richmond, Va.:

COLONEL: I have just had the honor to receive your letter of the 24th instant. You ask on the part of the governor if Brigadier-General Meen has been authorized by me to raise two regiments from the Third Division of Virginia Militia. I respectfully reply he was ordered to do so by me. Permit me to remind you that in calling out the militia I am compelled to use the officers set over them, and in the absence of any means of knowing their character must suppose that in times like these none but competent persons are left in high military places. If General Meem is such a person as you describe, let me suggest that the authorities in Richmond hold the remedy in their own hands, not I. I think that the belief you express "that the population from which these regiments would be taken is by no means loyal" is erroneous. Your strictures upon my order to General Meen imply strong disapproval-I suppose that of General Lee. If I am correct in so understanding you, would it not be well to countermand the order in question at headquarters?

Most respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. E. JOHNSTON,

Brigadier-General, C. S. Army.

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*Not found.

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