The troops have landed and are in camp on Warsaw Island, but the debarkation has been made under unfavorable circumstances on account of the weather, and I fear the health of the command may suffer in consequence. So far the health of the men has been good, notwithstanding the confinement; much better then at Hilton Head.

A good deal of activity is exhibited by the rebels in their works at the Skidaway battery.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. G. WRIGHT,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Expedition.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, A. G. O.,
Washington, February 12, 1862.

Brigadier General THOMAS W. SHERMAN, U. S. A.,

Commanding, &c., Port Royal, S. C.:

SIR: The General-in-Chief directs that you send about 300 or 400 contrabands to Key West, to be employed on the public works there.

I am, &c.,

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
Washington, February 12, 1862.

Brigadier General THOMAS W. SHERMAN,

Commanding,. Port Royal:"

GENERAL: You will learn by the mail that brings you this of our success in the West and East. The line of the Tennessee in open to us. Our gunboats have reached Florence, Ala., after taking Fort Henry, on the line between Tennessee and Kentucky, and we hope to hear to-day that Ford Donelson, on the Cumberland, has also been taken.

Burnside has most gallantly carried Roanoke Island, with some loss, but inflicting terrible destruction upon the enemy. All their positions are taken, their fleet of gunboats captured or destroyed. Our raw troops, according to the rebel accounts, behaved most gallantly.

General Meigs has just informed me that he has ordered large number of small boats. He is not yet informed of their leaving port. I have to-day a dispatch from Philadelphia in regard to shipping forty-eight surf-boats ready there to go to Port Royal. They will go forward at once.

I have been daily expecting to hear more definite accounts of what can be done in the Savannah River and of the possibility of starving out Fort Pulaski. While awaiting further re-enforcements, and while the rebels are pushed so much in other quarters, i would for your consideration whether, by reducing your garrisons to the minimum, a successful combined attack cannot be made on Savannah so soon as Pulaski has fallen.

In great haste, I am, general, very truly, yours,

GEO. B. McCLELLAN,

Major-General, U. S. Army, Commanding.