tonsville, turnpike. Send in the same direction all other available forces, with full supplies of ammunition. If the enemy should intend to attempt to take possession of the railroad, he will descend by that route, and, if all our energies be not at once thrown out, he will effect it.

I have sent Colonel Lee upon that line. He will be in Huntersville to-day, and must be supported, or all in that direction is lost. It is unfortunate that my idea of sending in that direction at a least one of the regiments now on the road to this point had not been adopted. But it may not be too late, if any reliance whatever can be placed upon the people of the country and we can act with sufficient promptness.

I send Captain Cole to-day to Huntersville to look to the transportation and provisioning of the column which should move on that line; but the prospect of obtaining an adequate supply is sight indeed.

Send a courier back to me at once, with a statement of what can be done and upon what I can rely in the premises; and you had best direct energetic attention to Millborough as a grand base of operations.

Very respectfully,

HENRY R. JACKSON,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS NORTHWESTERN ARMY,
Monterey, Va., July 22, 1861.

Major M. G. HARMAN, Quartermaster, Staunton, Va.:

SIR: In response to your favor of this day, I would simply refer you to my previous correspondence in reference to the propriety of starting a column upon the Huntersville and Huttonsville turnpike from Millborough, Central Railroad as its base of supplies, and I had inferred from your favor of July 20 that you concurred with me in that opinion, and had already urged it by telegraph upon the President. Grieved to find that my suggestion had not been adopted, and that no regiment had been sent by the way of Millbourough to support Colonel Lee, and confirmed in the correctness of my judgment by the recent reported movements of the enemy, I forwarded to you a telegraphic dispatch to-day, looking to the same end, addressed to headquarters, and desired that you should send all available forces at Staunton at once to Millborough. This would seem to make my response to your letter of this date unnecessary. But I am apprehensive that not to respond at once may possibly occasion some delay in a movement which appears to me to be all-important. I must beg, therefore, to insist that any troops designed for military operations in Northwestern Virginia shall be sent, until further notice, by the way of Millborough to their destination. In answer to your inquiry as to what disposition is to be made of the stragglers from the regiments which have suffered so greatly in the retreat from Lauel Hill, I must refer your for instruction to the Commander-in-Chief.

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

HENRY R. JACKSON,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

DEPARTMENT HEADQUARTERS,

Williamsburg, Va., July 22, 1861.

Colonel ROBERT JOHNSTON, Commanding Cavalry:

SIR: I have placed sixteen hundred picked men at your service, besides the cavalry under your command, and also two batteries of artil-