warm water, then placing it in a frying-pan with a few shoes of pork, and cooked for five minutes, stirring it, that all may be cooked alike. Such portions of beef as are not used in making soup should be cut in pieces about the size of a hen's egg, with half a ration of potatoes and a small-sized onion cut in slices to one man, and half a ration of desicated vegetables previously soaked in cold water for an hour, with a few small pieces of pork, adding salt and pepper, with water sufficient to cover well the ingredients, and stewed slowly for three hours, will make an excellent dish. Beef that is not used thus should be cooked on coals or held before them on a stick or fork, and no salt or pepper put on until cooked; the salt put on before cooking only assists in abstracting the juices of the meat and in making it dry and hard when cooked. The secret in using the desiccated vegetables is in having them thoroughly cooked. The want of this has given rise to a prejudice against them which is unfounded; it is the fault of the cooking, and not of the vegetables. Pork should be boiled three hours, having been previously soaked in water, to abstract the salt, for three hours, the water being changed twice in that time; when cold and cut in slices, with a piece of bread and a slice of onion, it makes an excellent lunch; cut in slices and toasted over coals it is sweet and good. Coffee should be roasted over a slow fire, constantly stirring it until it becomes of a chestnut-brown color, and not burnt, as is so commonly done. It should be boiled for twenty minutes, set one side, sweetened, well stirred, and a little cold water added to cause the grounds to settle. Cabbage is more wholesome when cut in shreds and eaten with a little vinegar, pepper, and salt, than when cooked. All fried meats are unwholesome; they should be boiled or broiled.

JONATHAN LETTERMAN,

Surgeon and Medical Director, Army of the Potomac.

BERKELEY, August 3, 1862-11.30 p.m.

H. W. HALLECK,

Commander-in-Chief U. S. Army:

I need several more large ferry-boats immediately to maintain proper communication with south side of James River. There should be no delay in sending them. I have asked for them several times.

Our information tends to the belief that there is a large force between Petersburg and Richmond, as well as on north side of the James River.

GEO. B. McCLELLAN,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, August 3, 1862.

Brigadier-General MEIGS,
Quartermaster-General, Washington:

It is indispensable that I have more ferry-boats. Please send them forward as soon as possible.

GEO. B. McCLELLAN,

Major-General, Commanding.