and took 75 prisoners, who were sent to Cumberland Gap. The county

is invested by enemies on every side, and great excitement prevails. In Buchanan the Union men surprised Captain Ratliff the other day, killed 1 of his men, took 2 prisoners, and stampeded about 50 of his men, who lost the arms they had, being some ten or a dozen country rifles of their own private property. I am issuing some more rifles to the company, and have directed that these marauders shall be driven out of the district.

I received your letter marked "Confidential" last evening, and will make my answer a special dispatch.

I am, general, your obedient servant,

H. MARSHALL,

Brigadier-General.

[Inclosure.]

ORDER.] HEADQUARTERS OF BRIGADE,

Lebanon, Va., April 25, 1862.

It being certified to the brigadier commanding that John P. Walter, Mitchel Walter, and James Walter, of the county of Wythe, have volunteered in Company E, Fifty-first Regiment Virginia Volunteers, and that John Puckett, of the county of Wythe, has volunteered in Company H, of same regiment, the brigadier-general directs that the names of said persons shall be stricken from the rolls of said companies, and that the men be taken into custody by Captain Wisely, of the Wythe militia, to be by him sent forward to the headquarters of Colonel A. C. Moore, of the Twenty-ninth Virginia Volunteers, in Russell County, without delay, to be attacked to companies in the Twenty-ninth not yet filled.

Officers of companies who have not been attached to General Marshall's command are positively prohibited from recruiting soldiers for corps or companies not in Brigadier-General Marshall's command within the boundary assigned to him. They are requested to report all such persons said to have been already recruited to these headquarters, that they may be sent to fill the regiments attacked to this command. Quartermasters will refuse transportation to any such who may apply therefor in order to remove, in disobedience of this order, and they will report the name of any officer and arrest any non-commissioned officer who may be found after this date attempting to arrange for the removal of such persons beyond the boundary of this command.

The arrangement of the army demands that the regiments under General Marshall's command shall be filled first from the population of the counties assigned to him, and certainly he will not suffer such injustice to this community to be perpetrated with impunity as will be-must be-by taking its active force elsewhere, thereby subjecting those who remain behind to increased burdens incident to the defense of this exposed frontier.

By order of

H. MARSHALL,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS OF BRIGADE,
No.--. Lebanon, Va., April 25, 1862.

Captains of militia companies in the several counties in General Marshall's command, and whose companies are organized under the directions

29 R R-VOL X, PT II