WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington City, D. C., April 20, 1862.

Major General GEORGE B. McCLELLAN,

Army of the Potomac, near Yorktown:

Telegram received. Do I understand that you would like 100 rounds for each field and siege piece prepared with percussion fuses? I have so ordered them. Seventy-sixh thousand rounds of additional field ammunition were ordered to be prepared for you yesterday.

JAS. W. RIPLEY,

Brigadier-General.

NEAR YORKTOWN, April 20, 1862-Midnight.

General J. W. RIPLEY,

Chief of Ordnance:

Please send me all the 20-pounder Parrotts you can as soon as possible, and let me know many you send and when I can look for them. I am short of siege guns.

GEO. B. McCLELLAN,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Camp Winfield Scott, April 20, 1862.

Brigadier General LORENZO THOMAS,
Adjutant-General, U. S. Army:

GENERAL: I inclose herewith a letter to General Burnside, which will explain itself. I think there should be no delay in sending him the cavalry and artillery asked for.

I would beg to suggest the propierty, if possible, of recruiting for Burnside's regiments, as the most effective manner of bringing up his force. Recruits scattered among his veteran regiments will be much more effective than the same number of men formed into new regiments.

Our works are progressing well to-day. Very little firing.

General Holmes, of the rebel army, was ordered to North Carolina in command one week after the fall of New Berne. General E. K. Smith went to East Tennessee about five weeks ago.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEO. B. McCLELLAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Near Yorktown, Va., April 20, 1862.

Major General AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE,

Commnanding Department of North Carolina:

GENERAL: I have information, which I regard as entirely reliable, that on the 25th of March a movement of troops commenced from Richmond for North Carolina to operate against your command. These regiments came from Fredericksburg and Gordonsville, having formed part of the Army of Manassas. They were: Fourth, Tenth,and Fourteenth