at Clarksburg or other points. To send a brigade of cavalry to operate it the mountains is to send it to destruction. The cavalry which I sent to capture the enemy's pickets at Columbia Furnace succeeded in doing so, but a good many of the men came frost-bitten. They found the mountain roads all ice.

P. H. SHERIDAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA, Cumberland, Md., January 30, 1865.

Major-General SHERIDAN,
Winchester, Va.:

Telegram received. I do not fear for the posts themselves at Clarksburg, Weston, &c., but cavalry can come in and make a raid and get out again, and infantry can do nothing with them, while if we have cavalry there we can break up their organization and prevent them from making raids. If I send any troops from here to these points in anticipation of a raid I shall not have enough to operate in case we should be attacked at any other point.

GEORGE CROOK,

Major-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. SECOND Brigadier, SECOND DIV., DEPT. OF W. VA., New Creek, W. Va., January 30, 1865.

Captain T. MELVIN,
Assistant Adjutant-General:

SIR: I have the honor to inclose communication from Captain Boggs, commanding State troops. I have no doubt that Gilmor and Imboden will operate in that section as soon as the weather breaks, as I understand he has been sent to Moorefield to take command of McNeill's, Woodson's, and other detached companies. I should like to use the Twenty-second Pennsylvania Cavalry to operate against him, and would therefore earnestly request that I have a regiment of infantry sent here to enable me to do so. As it is, should the Twenty-second away, I should be left without any troops, except the two batteries, which would be left without support. I hope this request will meet the general's approval.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. A. J. LIGHTBURN,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Second Brigade.

[Indorsement.]

HDQRS. SECOND DIVISION, DEPT. OF WEST VIRGINIA, Cumberland, Md. January 31, 1865.

Respectfully forwarded to department headquarters for the information of the general commanding.

The request of Brigadier-General Lightborn for an additional regiment of infantry to serve at New Creek is approved, but I am unable to send it to that point without totally exposing other portions of this command.

B. F. KELLEY,
Brevet Major-General.