HEADQUARTERS,
Williamsburg, Va., July 28, 1861.

Colonel CRUMP, Commanding, Gloucester Point, Va.:

SIR: General Magruder directs that you will make a call upon the citizens of Gloucester, Middlesex, and Matthews Counties for one-half of their made force of slaves, to finish the works around Gloucester Point. They will be allowed fifty cents a day and a ration for each negro man during the time he is at work. You will send out agents to collect and bring in these negroes, and entail some one to take down the names of the slaves, of their owners, and the date of their arrival, and to give a certificate of the number of days they have worked. The free negroes will be impressed, if they refuse to come, and a force will be sent to bring them in.

The general directs that the work be made, if possible, impregnable which he thinks can be done by deepening the ditches and thickening the parapets and putting up traverses. Six hundred negroes could effect this in ten days, or perhaps in five. Nearly eight hundred hands have been procured here in a very short time.

You will consult with Captain Page and Captain Meade in regard to the best method of strengthening the lines and batteries at Gloucester.

You will enforce, if it should be necessary, the above call, though it is hoped it will not be. I inclose the call.

I am, sir, respectfully,

G. B. COSBY,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS,
Manassas, July 29, 1861.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General:

GENERAL: I had the honor to write to you on the 24th instant on the subject of my rank compared with that of other officers of the C. S. Army. Since then I have received daily orders purporting to come from the "Headquarters of the Forces," some of them in relation to the internal affairs of this army. Such orders I cannot regard, because they are illegal.

Permit me to suggest that orders to me should come from your office.

Most respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. E. JOHNSTON,

General, C. S. Army.

HEADQUARTERS OF CAVALRY,
Cockletown, July 29, 1861.

Major G. B. COSBY,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, Hdqrs. Army of Yorktown:

MAJOR: I have the honor to report that I returned to this post this morning, and ordered the troops under my command to their respective stations, retaining here one 12-pounder howitzer, as instructed.

I should have reported from the Half-way House rumors of the evacuation of Hampton, but that Captain Bryan, who went down to Hampton with a flag of truce, had not returned, and I waited his return for authentic information. Captain Bryan returned late last evening, hav-