with a foe more than triple our numbers, in fastness that could be re-enforced at any number by an enemy holding the navigation of the Kanawha, and an enemy, too, who, after the battle of Manassas and the retirement of McClellan from the field to Washington, and by our timely escape from the valley, were so staggered that they manifested no disposition to advance, but paused to fortify themselves at Gauley; when, too, it was our policy to draw them to the eastern verge of the Fayette wilderness, force upon them 40 miles of mountain transportation, instead of our driving on the western verge of that wilderness and taking upon ourselves with inferior force the loss and cost and risk of that same wilderness mountain transportation. This policy I presented to General Lee, and he in advance emphatically approved it. One the 6th of August General Floyd was within 2 miles of the White Sulphur. That evening he visited me in camp, and notified me that on the morning of the 7th of August he would move to Lewisburg. He wanted to drive the enemy across the Gauley in less than a week, and by his blunt and blunt manner caused me to write to General Lee my letter of August 7.

The first two letters of my correspondence with General Floyd I file for no present purpose of this report. They may explain some matters in future. From Camp Arbuckle, near Lewisburg, August 8, he called upon me for a full detail of my command, the number of men, arms, and ammunition fit for use, the amount of transportation, &c. I replied by mine of the same date from the White Sulphur Springs, August 8, 6 o'clock p. m. On the 10th of August I informed General Lee of additional re-enforce meats sent to General Floyd besides my cavalry force of about 500, and that I would follow as soon as possible from day to day-so soon as I could clothe my men and fit them for a march and provide ammunition; and I beg leave to call the attention of the President to this letter to General Lee as containing a proposition to stop the enemy on or near the eastern verge of the fayette wilderness. See also my two letters to General Lee of August 11 and my letter to General Floyd of August 9 as to my disposition to co-operate with General Floyd. In reply to my letters of the 10th and 11th August, General Lee complimented me for re-enforcing General Floyd so promptly, and added:

Your reasons for our troops not advancing to Gauley at present are conclusive, and your plan of stopping the enemy on the eastern verge of the wilderness you describe is concurred in. Until ready to open and penetrate the Kanawha Valey, whence you may draw your supplies, the line of defense you propose, embracing points of strength, is the best.

Such were the wise instructions of the superior of both General Floyd and myself, and when I found General Floyd running directly counter to this policy, it wound have been no wonder if I had leaned to my own judgment thus indorsed by General Lee; but notwithstanding this, the President and Secretary of War will see that I followed my immediate superior in the vain attempt to force the Gauley.

On the 12th August General Floyd assumed command of the forces of the Army of the Kanawha and the country adjacent thereto, appointed Colonel Heth acting inspector-general, and ordered him at once to inspect the forces composing the command, commencing with the Wise Legion. My letter to General Floyd of the 11th August shows my hurry to co-operate with him. On the 13th August General Floyd sent me a communication from Colonel Davis, and called for a battery of artillery and such other forces as I could spare. In mine of the 13th I promised him in the shortest possible time some 1,500 men. On