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

HDQRS. THIRD REGIMENT GEORGIA VOLUNTEERS,September 22, 1861.

Brigadier General B. HUGER, Commanding Forces in Norfolk, Va.:

GENERAL: I have finished the earthwork for a six-gun battery on the main-land, nearly opposite Weir Point, at a place called Roberts' Fishery. The men returned from the work yesterday, having been engaged there thirty-six hours. The lumber and other material necessary to complete it has been ordered from Plymounth, and will be here to-day or to-morrow. The Weit Point battery is nearly finished, and I will finish to-day a field work, about 6 miles below the Weir Point battery, at the causeway, across the marsh, on the center of the island. To complete the defenses of this island a small battery ought to be erected on Midgett's Hammock (or Island), to command the channel of Roanoke Sound. Boats drawing 4 1\2 feet of water can avoid our batteries by coming up on the east side of the island through Roanoke Sound. The point I have indicated for a battery is about midway the eastern shore of the island, and the guns can be placed within 800 yards of the fathers side of the channel. Vessels drawing over 18 inches of water must come within 700 or 800 yards of the battery. I do not know whether the enemy have as light-draught vessels as that, but if they have they can get through Roanoke Sound.

Colonel Shaw's regiment arrived here about midday yesterday, and I had indulged the hope that I should be relieved by him. I beg, if shoes, tents, and cooking utensils bough down from our old camp. The work which they have been engaged on here has worn-out their clothing and shoes; many of them are barefoot, and when I send to the camp at Portsmouth for the clothing and shoes left there, the officer in command refused to let the articles come, because we are to return to my old command, and think now that the defenses here are so nearly completed that I might be withdrawn. At any rate, I beg, if I am to remain here permanently, that I be informed of it as soon as possible.

Major Lee, who will hand you this letter, can give you full information as to the state of the defenses here. He goes up to attend to the securement of our clothing, tents, &c., left in our old camp.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. R. WRIGHT.

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Richmond, September 23, 1861.

His Excellency HENRY T. CLARK, Governor of North Carolina:

SIR: The President desires that you will issue your proclamation calling out the militia of the following counties of your State, viz: Currituck, Camden, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Chowan, Bertie, Tyrrell, Washington, Hyde, Beaufort, Craven, and Carteret. It is suggested that the call can be made by volunteers already in service. Bring. General D. H. Hill, now in the Peninsula of Virginia, will be ordered to the command of the coast defenses of North Carolina.

Respectfully,

J. P. BENJAMIN, Acting Secretary of War.