HEADQUARTERS, Richmond, Va., March 19, 1862.

Brigadier General HUMPHREY MARSHALL,
Commanding, &c., Lebanon, Va.:

GENERAL: Your letter of the 13th instant has been received. You are authorized to disband the battalion at Pound Gap, received for special service, when you deem proper. There is no law for purchasing horses for cavalry service, and it cannot be authorized. Asst. Adjt. General Benjamin F. Bradley will be appointed major, to command the battalion of Mounted Rifles. Charles Duncan cannot be appointed adjutant of the battalion; the law only authorizes the appointment of adjutants to regiments. Charles E. Marshall will be appointed adjutant and inspector general, and assigned to you temporarily for duty. John M. Stansifer will be appointed adjutant and inspector general of the brigade. Captain Shawhan can retain his commission as major of cavalry, with the hope that his command will speedily be raised equal to his rank.

You have already been served with the authority of the Governor of the State to call out the militia from the counties embraced in your operations. To guard the passages to the lead mines of Wythe and the salt-works in Smyth was one of the special objects for which your command was established in observation of the roads leading in from the Sandy. The counties of the State embraced within the limits of your operations are those from which you are to draw the militia and concerning which you must have an understanding with General Heth to avoid collision in your respective calls.

I am, &c.,

R. E. LEE,

General, Commanding.

CORINTH, March 20, 1862.

General JOHNSTON:

General Wood has moved to this point. But one regiment of mine now at Iuka. The rest of your forces had better concentrate near Burnsville, as indicated by General Beauregard.

BRAXTON BRAGG.

DECATUR, March 20, 1862.

General BRAGG, Corinth:

Your dispatch received. I will send forward troops to-morrow to the point indicated by you and continually, until I mass my whole force there.

A. S. JOHNSTON.

DECATUR, March 20, 1862.

Colonel JOHN S. SCOTT,

Commanding Louisiana Regiment Cavalry, Pulaski:

SIR: Since writing to you this evening I have received a dispatch informing me that the pickets of Morgan's cavalry at Shelbyville were driven in on the night of the 18th, and that Captain Morgan was on his way to Huntsville. I have ordered Colonel Biffle to this place