subject of reorganization as soon as Northampton is secured. I will attend to the postal, light-house, and other matters.

I wrote to Commodore Goldsborough a week ago, and have his answer. He will watch the lower part of the peninsula at all points, and prevent the escape of the rebel force.

Officers who have been in the pay of the Confederate should be arrested and held as prisoners until the order of the Government is announced. Rank and file, if they have laid down their arms, need not be disturbed.

In regard to correspondence, I see no objection to the free circulation of letters to all portions of the two counties in which the two counties in which the authority of the Government is re-established.

You are right in your opinion that no act of a rebel convention or legislature can be recognized. In all these respects the two counties must, when they come back, be in the statu quo before the rebellion. Until some principles of reorganization can be agreed upon, either as a part of Maryland or of Western Virginia, their corporate powers as counties will be sufficient to meet all their exigencies. I speak without having examined the statutes of Virginia, but on all these points I will write you hereafter.

NOVEMBER 21.

The captain of the star was directed to call here for dispatches at 7 p.m. yesterday. He failed to do so, and this letter has in consequences been kept over. I send it by way of Salisbury.

I am, very respectfully, yours,

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS,
Baltimore, November 21, 1861.

GENERAL: Lieutenant Coffin, commanding the Hercules, will leave to-morrow for Pungoteaugue Inlet. I sent letters to you to-day by mail, via Salisbury, with my last instructions. You will please send a small force south of Eastville, to take Cape Charles light-house, and to make such reconnaissances as to assure yourself that the rebel organizations are entirely broken up. Please give Lieutenant Coffin such instructions as may be necessary for the protection of your supplies and transports, and for preventing the escape of persons connected with the rebel corps in Accomac and Northampton Counties.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS,
Baltimore, November 21, 1861.

GENERAL: Ascertain, if possible, the parties who committed the depredations referred to in your letter and order, and send them back, as directed, in irons. If you have any thieves with you, get rid of them they can be spared. I think if, as you suppose, there is to be no fighting in Northampton, and you get possession of the cannon in the two