CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING SPECIALLY TO OPERATIONS IN MARYLAND, NORTHERN VIRGINIA, AND WEST VIRGINIA FROM AUGUST 1, 1861, TO MARCH 17, 1862.

UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.

GENERAL ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS A. O. W. V.,

Numbers 7.
Clarksburg, Va., August 3, 1861.

The line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Cumberland to Wheeling, and the Northwestern Virginia Railroad from Grafton with the military posts, stations, and depots thereon,will, until further orders, constitute a special military district, to be called the District of Grafton.

Brigadier General B. F. Kelley, U. S. Volunteers, is assigned to the District of Grafton.

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By order Brigadier-General Rosecrans:

[No signature.]

HDQRS. ARMY OF OCCUPATION OF WESTERN VIRGINIA,
Clarksburg, Va., August 4, 1861.

Colonel E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Washington, D. C.:

COLONEL: Lower Cheat River region appears to be entirely free of rebel forces as far as Winchester. Eight thousand militia reported at Harrisonburg, 2,000 between Monterey and Cheat Mountain Pass. I think the rebel forces in Western Virginia are mostly about Lewisburg.

I have directed the building of small field works below Gauley Bridge, and Cox to open communication with Tyler at Summerville. Two Ohio regiments sent to Kanawha; Twenty-first Ohio (three-months' men) ordered out; Twenty-second Ohio at Parkersburg, on its way out; Seventeenth Ohio, the last, at Weston to-night, on its way home. One of the Ohio regiments coming up will move to Elk river by Bulltown and scour that country. A detachment from Glenville also scours a region now infested with guerrillas. Ten days will probably complete all this work, and, were we prepared to hold it, enable me to seize Lewisburg, which is but five days' march from head of steamboat navigation on the Kanawha; propose a provision depot of ample size, properly fortified, there. In twenty days I shall have a packed train for 5,000 men-ten days' rations.

As soon as the new Ohio regiments begin to come in, so that we can secure this front here, I shall begin to dispose matters for the movement on Wythwille and East Tennessee. I propose to seize that place, and take possession of the railroad as far down as Abingdon; break the railroad bridges down east of Wytheville, so as to prevent the enemy from coming in that direction; make a fortified depot of it and a good road from thence to the Great Falls of the Kanawha, and there concentrate all the troops we can spare on that line. In the interim shall make every effort towards the restoration of peace, law, and order in Western Virginia.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Brigadier-General, U. S. Army.