learn, the enemy are not moving in this direction, but continue to concentrate about Washington. I am endeavoring to break up the line of communication as far back as Culpeper Court-House, and turn everything into the Valley of Virginia, in accordance with the plan which I have heretofore made known to you.

I fear that the arms captured on the plains of Manassas, of which some 10,000 or 12,000 were collected at Gainesville, will all be lost, for want of transportation to remove them. I made the best arrangements in my power, being compelled to move the army away, and the wagons that had been ordered to go by Gainesville to take arms back were taken to transport sick and wounded back to Warrenton. I can get no satisfactory account of these arms. The last I heard of them they were still at Gainesville.

So far we have had no difficulty in procuring provisions in the country, though we have not relied exclusively upon them for our subsistence.

I have the honor to be, with high respect, your obedient servant,

R. E. LEE,

General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
September 8, 1862.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General:

GENERAL: Many convalescents, anxious to rejoin their commands, are scattered between this and Culpeper Court-House, subject to capture by passing scouts of Federal cavalry. General Lee requests that all recruits, convalescents, &c., destined for this army, may be retained in Richmond, employed as guards or at the school of instruction, until in sufficient force to be sent forward as an organized detachment, under command of officers, to Culpeper Court-House, and thence, after drawing rations sufficient for the march, to Winchester, by the way of Luray and Front Royal. Under the present system they are scattered from Rapidan, unprovided for and uncontrolled, straggling on the road and depredating upon the community, and in some instances have been captured by the enemy.

I am, general, respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. H. CHILTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
Near Fredericktown, Md., September 8, 1862.

To the people of Maryland:

It is right that you should know the purpose that brought the army under my command within the limits of your State, so far as that purpose concerns yourselves. The people of the Confederate States have long watched with the deepest sympathy the wrongs and outrages that have been inflicted upon the citizens of a commonwealth allied to the States of the South by the strongest social, political, and commercial ties. They have seen with profound indignation their sister State deprived of every right and reduced to the condition of a conquered province. Under the pretense of supporting the Constitution, but in violation of its most valuable provisions. our citizens have been arrested