such portions of your force as have been heretofore posted on the coast in the neighborhood of Lynn Haven Bay.

The transports recently sent to sea by the enemy are in all probability destined to re-enforce General Burnside and to attack your rear. This is only a suggestion, and is by no means intended to interfere with your own dispositions of your troops.

I trust that, with the aid of General Loring and Randolph, recently sent to you, and of General Ransom, who will be at once ordered to join you, you will be enabled to infuse such vigor and activity in your command as to inspire them with confidence in a successful defense. General Ransom has just been nominated, and his regiment of cavalry, which is one of the very finest in any service, is ordered to re-enforce you.

We have also ordered about 2,000 to aid you from Washington, N. C., and General Magruder will hold in readiness on James River 5,000 men, with the necessary means of throwing them across to your support the instant the movements of the enemy render certain what is now deemed very probable - an attack on Suffolk. Several batteries of field artillery will also be sent to you.

Your obedient servant,

J. P. BENJAMIN,

Secretary of War.

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,

Richmond, Va., March 5, 1862.

Major General B. HUGER, Norfolk, Va.:

SIR: Martial law having been declared in Norfolk under the President's proclamation, he desires me to call your attention to the various measures which he hopes will at once be vigorously executed:

1st. Some leading and reliable citizen to be appointed provost-marshal in Norfolk and another in Portsmouth. In the former city he suggests the mayor, said to be a zealous friend of our cause.

2nd. All arms to be required to be given up by the citizens; private arms to be paid for.

3rd. The whole male population to be enrolled for military service; all stores and shops to be closed at 12 or 1 o'clock, and the whole of the citizens forced to drill and undergo instructions.

4th. The citizens so enrolled to be armed with the arms given up and with those of infantry now in service at batteries.

5th. Send away as rapidly as can be done, without exciting panic, all women and children, and reduce your population to such as can aid in defense.

6th. Give notice that all merchandise, cotton, tobacco, &c., not wanted for military use, be sent away within the given time, or it will be destroyed.

7th. Imprison all persons against whom there is well-grounded suspicion of disloyalty.

8th. Purchase all supplies in the district that can be made useful for your army, allowing none to be carried away that you might want in the event that the city is beleagued.

In executing these orders you will of course use your own discretion, so to act as to avoid creating panic as far as possible.

Your obedient servant,

J. P. BENJAMIN,

Secretary of War.