CHAP.XII.] CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-CONFEDERATE.

to Pikeville. Bad road and great danger of being cut off by way of Montgomery has determined me to take former route. we will defend them the best we can until re-enforced. I am informed that the enemy understands that we have a large amount of stores here, and they wish to capture them by surprise. I have brought all my command up to this place, except our pickets back on the different roads, and we are felling timber in the strong passes behind us to obstruct their advance. Let me hear from you without delay.

Yours, truly,

GEO. R. McCLELLAN, Lieutenant-Colonel.

KNOXVILLE, TENN., November 4, 1861.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General:

SIR: The dispatches from General Zollicoffer state that he had reason to believe that the enemy with a force of 9,000 is approaching by Jacksonborough or Jamestown. Information from Assistant Adjutant-General Mackall says that there are about 10,000 men between Camp Dick Robinson and Cincinnati. This information has been received by the Union men in East Tennessee, and they are openly preparing for rebellion. Men are arriving here daily from the adjoining counties, bringing information that the Unionists are talking exultingly of the approach of the Lincoln Army and their intention to join it. The state of the country here is evidently worse at this time than at any previous period. General Zollicoffer has taken all the troops from here, except about 200 infantry and one company of cavalry, and most of the latter are absent on special duty. The necessity for a larger force at this point is urgent. Our commissary and quartermaster's stores are liable to be seized at any moment, as also the railroad.

It is a great mistake to suppose that the people of East Tennessee are submissive or willing to acquiesce. They have only been held quiet by the force which was at Knoxville, and now that it is gone, they are evidently preparing for a general uprising if the Lincoln Army should make any advance into Tennessee. I need at least a regiment at this place to give protection to the stores of the Government and preserve quiet. There are three companies of infantry here under the late call of the governor for 30,000, but they have no arms.

I communicate directly to the Department, because I think the exigency admits of no delay, and have no doubt it will meet with the approval of General Zollicoffer, to whom I send a copy.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. B. WOOD, Colonel, Commanding Post.

KNOXVILLE, TENN., November 4, 1861.

HonorableJ. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of War:

SIR: I have to-day written to General Cooper is reference to the state of affairs in East Tennessee and the necessity of re-enforcements being sent immediately; but as there is a misapprehension in reference to the feeling of the late Union party existing abroad, I have requested Mr. Archer, of Richmond, now on a visit here, to call on you and give you fuller information than I can write. In additional to what I have written to General Cooper, I will say that there can be no doubt of the