reference to the course that should be adopted in this State by the General Government are remarkably coincident, and you may be sure that I will grant him every facility in my power to carry out these views. His arrival here is a source of very great relief to me, as there are many civil cases here that require early attention. In a few days I will be able to report to you more definitely the arrangements made to carry out the instructions to the Governor and myself.

You will have seen in the papers that his brother was arrested by my forces a few days ago. Upon investigation of the charges upon which he was arrested I was very glad to find they were not of a sufficiently serious nature to require his detention, and I therefore released him the day before the Governor's arrival. The prisoners brought by him from Washington City have been sent to their homes under a flag of truce. We are now receiving our prisoners from Salisbury, N. C., at the rate of 200 per day. They will be forwarded to New York with the least possible delay. There will be some 1,300 non-commissioned officers and privates in all. General Holmes, the rebel commander n this State, has no authority to release the commissioned officers confined in Salisbury, among whom are Colonels Corcoran and Wilcox. I shall continue my efforts in their behalf, and do not despair of obtaining for them an early release.

I shall send by the steamer carrying the prisoners duplicate rolls, one to yourself, the other to Colonel Tompkins, chief quartermaster, New York City. Would it not be well to send from your officer by telegraph instructions to Colonel Tompkins to furnish these men with immediate transportation to their homes?

Nothing of importance has occurred in a military way in this department since my last dispatch. We are anxiously waiting the result of General McClellan's movement before Richmond.

None of our teams or locomotives have yet arrived.

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. E. BURNSIDE,

Major-General, Commanding Department of North Carolina.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NORTH CAROLINA,
New Berne, May 30, 1862.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: I have the honor to report that during the last week the naval force in these waters has been reduced by sending two vessels (the Underwriter and the Valley City) North for repairs, and by ordering two (the Delaware and Southfield) to join Flag-Officer Goldsborough on the James River.

I am not disposed to question the wisdom of these orders, but I deem it my duty to remind you that we hold, by means of the military and naval force here, all the towns in these waters, and if the number of naval vessels is to be diminished, it will be necessary to vacate some of the places. In every place that has been visited by either the Army or Navy some Union feeling has been displayed, and in some of the places the American flag has been hoisted upon the public buildings by citizens of their own volition, and it would be manifest injustice to leave these people without a protecting force to the oppression of the rebel Government.

Without wishing to complain of the Navy Department, which has